Rise of the Solar Empire
by SapOzh
Summary: AU. The humanity finds Prothean town on Earth in 1843 A.D. It's mostly intact and has some information about the Reapers. The Prothean technology is used to conquer and unite the humanity. There is no Alliance. Meet the Solar Empire.
1. Chapter 1

**Ascension.**

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><p><strong>AN**

Sorry, couldn't work on Star Wars fic. I had a long holyday trip and then was ill. More important I didn't have any notes on the SW fic, so I decided to work on something else and that resulted in these two chapters.

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><p><strong>About<strong>

It's an AU. There are two major bifurcation points. A bifurcation point in Protheans' history and a point in our own history:

Protheans didn't stop with establishing an outpost on the Mars, they went to Earth and built up a scientific base there. When the Reapers invaded the galaxy, one of the cruisers managed to reach Earth trying to revive the dying race. They built a small town, but in the end couldn't stabilize the population and completely died out seven hundred years later. There was an energy shield around the town. It forced humans to stay away from there, since everyone who touched the shield died. Soon after last of the Protheans died, the shield went down and the most systems went passive. Thousands years later the town sunk into the ground. Prothean heritage was found in the XIX century.

I should add that technological development was different from our own. Firearms gave their place to weapons based on Mass Accelerators in the early XX century. There weren't many things, because the Empire already had a more advanced alternative. The society which was formed because of the bifurcation points is unusual.

I wanted to start around 1850 and I needed an absolute monarchy, so I was forced to look at available monarchies of XIX. I had actually only six choices: the Austrian Empire, the British Empire, the Portuguese Empire, the German Empire-to-be, the Spanish Empire, Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire. France obviously wasn't a monarchic country anymore. The British and German ones weren't absolute monarchies too, even if it was appealing to write about the German Empire. Austria had a revolution around that time, not a good place to start something. Spanish, Portuguese were declining too and I don't really want to write about them. Sorry. So, it left me with Japan or Russia. I don't know much about Japan… Well, I know really many things, but I don't think I can imagine the world with a worldwide Empire of Japan. It's a suicide to write about Japan. The only choice is Russia. I believe any other country would become democratic and follow the path of original universe. It's irrelevant though, because of the cultural blending in the Solar Empire.

**Emperors/Empresses (Reign)**

Emperor Nikolai I ( … - 1855)

Emperor Alexander II ( 1855 – 1874 )

Emperor Nikolai II ( 1874 – 1917 )

Emperor Mikhail I ( 1917 – 1961 )

Empress Anna I ( 1961 – 1990 )

Empress Elisabeth I ( 1990 – 2043 )

Emperor Alexander III (2043-2086)

Regent Charles ( 2086 – 2090)

Empress Victoria I ( 2090 - … )

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><p><strong>Timeline:<strong>

48,891 B.C: Protheans establish an outpost on Mars.

48,884 B.C: Protheans build up an scientific base on Earth.

48,861 B.C: Ripers invade the galaxy.

48,860 B.C: ~2000 Protheans arrive to Earth and try to rebuild the race. They continue to research means to fight Reapers.

48,136 B.C: The last of the Protheans dies on Earth.

1843 A.D: Prothean town is found in the Russian Empire and classified as a secret.

1853 A.D: Crimean War. Russians use Prothean weapons and gain victories over the alliance of the French, the Ottoman, the British Empires and the Kingdom of Sardinia.

1854 A.D: Constantinople is captured. The end of Ottoman Empire.

1855 A.D: Alexander II successes to the Throne.

1856 A.D: The Great Conquest begins. Russian Empire declares war on Austrian Empire. The war ends after three weeks with Austrians defeat.

1862 A.D: Russian Empire use Prothean vehicles. Careless handling with Element Zero results in great number of leaks.

1863 A.D: Conquest of Europe is complete.

1866 A.D: The Empire crushes a rebellion.

1873 A.D: Asia is under control of the Empire.

1874 A.D: Emperor Alexander II is killed by rebels. Nikolai II ( Brother of Alexander III, who wasn't an Emperor in this timeline unlike the original one) successes to the Throne.

1876 A.D: Conquest of the America begins. Prothean technologies leaks can't shake the strength of the Russian Empire.

1879 A.D: Both Americas are under control of the Empire.

1880 A.D: First success in the research of Prothean technology.

1881 A.D: The Great Reformation. Establishment of the Senate (A/N: see the Senate from Star Wars. Instead of Supreme Chancellor there is an Emperor/Empress with more powers than a Supreme Chancellor. It's like a non-elective Supreme Chancellor with emergency powers). A constitution is introduced. The Russian Empire is renamed to the Great Empire to avoid ethnic conflicts. New calendar is introduced but doesn't become official until later.1881 A.D. is the year 1 G.R (the Great Reformation).

004 G.R (1884 A.D): Australia joins the Empire of its own free will.

013 G.R (1893 A.D): First biotics are discovered.

019 G.R (1899 A.D): First mass-production devices based on Prothean technology are introduced.

067 G.R (1947 A.D): Attempt to transfer majority of the powers from the Monarch to the Senate. The vast majority of the populace supports the Monarchy.

069 G.R (1949 A.D): Rebellion in the Administrative Region West Europe is put down.

073 G.R (1953 A.D): Launch of the first artificial satellite to the orbit of Earth using Mass Effect fields.

074 G.R (1954 A.D): Prothean language is deciphered. Rapid technological development. The information about Reapers is known and classified.

075 G.R (1955 A.D): The first manned spaceflight on Prothean shuttle.

076 G.R (1956 A.D): The first manned spaceflight on Empire's own spaceships.

078 G.R (1958 A.D): The first human on the Moon.

081 G.R (1961 A.D): The first human on the Mars. The first space station is established on orbit of the Earth.

082 G.R (1961 A.D): The new calendar is ratified.

085 G.R (1965 A.D): The first settlement on the Moon is established.

098 G.R (1978 A.D): Prothean ruins on Mars are discovered.

102 G.R (1982 A.D): Mass Relay is discovered.

103 G.R (1983 A.D): Introduction of biotic implants.

109 G.R (1989 A.D): Charon Relay is activated.

110 G.R (1990 A.D): The first human outside of the Solar System. The Solar Empire becomes a new official name of the Empire.

111 G.R (1991 A.D): Empress Elisabeth stops further exploration of the space in fear of the Reapers and starts a construction of the Great Solar Fleet and Defensive Belts.

139 G.R (2019 A.D): To increase resources supply Empress Elisabeth makes a decision to expand Empire's borders by activation of two more Relays.

188 G.R (2068 A.D): Success in construction of Mass Relays building upon Prothean's latest technologies.

204 G.R (2084 A.D): Four major Relay routes are dublicated by Empire's own Mass Relay Network.

206 G.R (2086 A.D): Empress Victoria success to the Throne of the Solar Empire at the age of 14 under regency of her cousin Charles. Construction of the spaceship «Destiny» begins.

210 G.R (2090 A.D): Empress Victoria is of age. Construction of the Destiny comes to the end.

01.12.210 G.R (2090 A.D): The crew of the Destiny is approved by the Empress. The mission of the Destiny is to explore the outer space, discover if Reapers are in the galaxy, search for allies and establish diplomatical relationships with them…

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><p><strong>The Solar Empire of 2090 A.D.<strong>

Total population: 23 billions.

Biotics: 0,00001%: ~2300, ~400 strong ones and only ~40 in the active service.

Earth population: 11 billions.

Solar system population: 12 billions.

Colonized systems: 19.

Colonized planets: 82 (Either colonized or a mining world).

Space stations: 30

29 planetary systems, 4 active Reapers'Mass Relays, 2 active Empire's Relays.

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><p><strong>Vessels of the Imperial Navy (2090 A.D.)<strong>

30 dreadnoughts,

50 battlecruisers,

120 cruisers,

45 carriers,

300 frigates,

1000 smaller vessels except fighters.

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><p><strong>AN II:** Of course, John Shepard of this story is completely different one from the game, but I decided to use the name as a tribute. Even if it doesn't really make sense, I will still use some words like 'biotic'. I'm sure if it were for real, two different universes would have different names for the same things. I assume the humanity is the race introduced fighters. Every ship of the Empire carries a large amount of fighters, since fighters are the main firepower of every ship. I use metric system.

Notice: there is no such thing as public internet in the Solar Empire! There is no *adult* television as well!

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><p><strong>Chapter 1.<strong>

All night John Gregory Shepard was wide-awake. How could one hope to sleep if it was the very night before the launch of the most important mission in human history? The first expedition to outer space, to the ancient Citadel humanity knew about from the heritage of the Ancients. They didn't have much information on it, the Ancient information systems were damaged in the course of last fifty thousand years, it was however known, that it was the center of the civilization of the Ancients and it took first hit during some war. No one knew for certain what to expect. Were the Ancients able to rebuild their civilization? Was the Citadel destroyed? Was the station still serving as a center of some new civilization?

He cursed silently as he saw it was six in the morning; time to get up. He sighed and went to the bathroom to take a shower. He put the dress uniform then and left the apparent heading to the dock where the starship Destiny was awaiting him.

"Hey, John!" he heard a voice from behind and turned round.

"Alex," he nodded to his old friend and chuckled, "Didn't see you in ages! Did you finally get tired of my sister and transferred from the Chomolungma?"

"No, the Chomolungma is here, we've docked hour ago."

"You're joking," John said.

"Well, she is longing to see you before the mission."

"She wants me dead."

"Ah, she's your sister; I doubt she'll hurt you… much."

"Yes, the sister who likes to embarrass me every time I see her."

"Of course," John heard a female voice, "I'm your big sister, why shouldn't I tell funny stories about your childhood?"

"Well I would happily live without them, Anna," he said embracing her.

"Be happy I didn't tell all of them."

"Hey, Alex, do you see how happy I am?" he asked his friend.

"You're practically radiating happiness," Alex nodded grinning.

"Don't worry, it's your big day, brother. I'm here only to wish you break a leg."

"Thank you; can't wait till it happen," waved John.

They reached the docking bay and he saw the Destiny again. The starship was the largest one ever produced by the Solar Empire and it was incredible how majestic it looked. He closed his eyes for a moment, sighted and stepped forward. His sister and friend wished him luck and joined the crowd, consisting of military, nobility, journalists and other people honoured to face the start of the mission. He looked at to the left and saw five admirals and the crew of the Destiny behind them. John braced himself and headed towards admirals, who were waiting for him. The first one was gray-haired Heinrich Lewald, there were shoulder straps on his white dress uniform indicating him to be the admiral of the fleet. He was the second party in the fleet of the Empire after the Empress. To his right stood admirals of the second fleet Wilhelm Sutherland and Peter Blackmon the admiral of the third fleet and one of the friends of Shepard. To his left - duchess Anastasia Orlova the admiral of the fourth fleet and the admiral of the fifth fleet count Mikhail Gorchakov.

"Your Highness," he greeted the duchess with a light bow, and turned to other admirals, "Your excellencies."

"At easy, Shepard," Heinrich said. "Nervous? Don't worry, I would be nervous too."

"Lewald," Peter said, "the only thing can make you nervous is a pack of battlecruisers and big guns."

"Don't be so sure, Blackmon," the older admiral said and smiled, "Moreover, the Destiny is much better than a pack of battlecruisers."

"Sure," he laughed.

"Her Imperial Majesty Empress Victoria!" they heard the voice of a herald and John took his place to the right of admiral Blackmon.

"I didn't expect her to be this early," whispered Blackmon to him. "She is beautiful, isn't she? You're lucky to be here earlier too. I wouldn't want to upset the empress."

"Shut it, Peter," John hissed.

"Why so serious? Smile, she'll like it."

John sighed, but didn't answer looking at the young eighteen years old empress. He never saw her with his own eyes and could only agree with a common opinion that she was the most beautiful member of the Imperial House. He sighed, knowing that she was unreachable for lowly count like him even if he was going to become one of the most famous people of the Empire given the mission would be successful. He was very nervous. He was so engrossed in his thoughts, that admirals greeting her and her coming up to him and offering a hand for a kiss, what was considered a great honour. The empress pouted, having a disbelieving look on her face. An elbow into the ribs from Blackmon helped him to regain his senses. John kneeled and kissed her hand.

"I beg you for forgiveness, Your Majesty," he said as he stood up, "I was enthralled by your beauty for a moment," he continued and cursed silently realizing what he said.

"You should be more attentive, count Sheppard," she said hiding her blush, "We're glad to meet the one who will represent the Solar Empire at last," she smiled, "I must say, it was entertaining to hear about your childhood adventures."

"You spoke to my sister?" he asked grimly.

"Yes, she is a great story teller and even better captain of the Navy. Surely you don't think we would approve you knowing next to nothing about you?"

"No, of course no, Your Majesty."

She smiled and headed to the tribune.

"Well, somebody, please, kill me. I made a fool of myself," he sighed earning snickers of admirals.

"Don't worry over nothing, Shepard," said the duchess, "It's your first time seeing my cousin. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Many of respected people were more nervous than you. The empress didn't take it badly and your compliment though slightly inappropriate was well-timed and distracted her from your stupor."

"Thank you, Your Highness," he said.

"Ah, Shepard, please, we know each other for ten years, drop the formality at last."

"You know," said Blackmon grinning, "when I said smile, I didn't mean to be an idiot."

"Shut up, Peter."

"You owe me."

Everyone in the bay silenced as the empress reached the tribune and began to speak.

"My loving people, I greet you all on the significant day for we all were waiting for it many years. The day the humanity will lance towards the unknown. It is nearly two hundred years since the day we found the Heritage of the Ancients and my ancestors brought peace to the humanity, hundred thirty five years since we launched a first artificial satellite, hundred years since the Solar Empire moved the borders beyond the Solar system. At last, we have a new goal before us. The Galaxy!"

"We learned from the mistakes committed by the Ancients to not repeat them. Our fleet is strong and we are ready to repel any aggression against the Solar Empire and any citizen of the Empire. However the history warns us for conceit. We do not know what is awaiting us beyond the Relays, but we have the starship Destiny, the most secure and the most armed ship, a result of combined efforts of the best minds of the Empire. The ship will allow us to glance beyond the borders of the Solar Empire. The Destiny is a vanguard of the Humanity; for it will be the crew of the ship, who will meet new friends or face enemies of the Empire. The Destiny is entrusted to establish relations with alien civilizations. If the Destiny happens to find an enemy, I, the Empress, vow to defend the Empire. We will overwhelm and crush all the enemies to ensure prosperity of the humanity! All hail Solar Empire!"

"All Hail Solar Empire!" everyone exclaimed at once.

The ceremony lasted for almost two hours and it fairly tired the captain of the Destiny, who wasn't a devotee of noisy useless crowds, since he was a man of action whether diplomatic or military. When the ceremony came to an end he managed to do it second time for the day. He didn't noticed the empress coming up to him, this time however he could be excused by being absorbed in a conversation between two naval officers. The conversation he didn't really was a part of.

"Count Shepard," he heard her voice and started.

"Yes, Your Majesty? How can I be of use?"

"I only wanted to ask you personally to be very careful. You must understand that information is the best advantage you can give the Empire. We can't lose the Destiny before you gather information, it is the best ship we have with an extraordinary team at your command. If you fail to pass information about the galaxy, your mission will be meaningless. Do not enter conflicts unless you have to. Do you understand?"

"I will do everything to successfully accomplish the mission."

"Don't fail me," she said, her rare vibrant green eyes locked on his own brown ones.

"I won't fail you, Your Majesty."

The Empress nodded and left the docking bay. He sighed and clinched his fists vowing to not fail her at any cost.

"And, what did Her Majesty wanted from you?" he heard his sister's voice and smiled.

"Well, she wished me luck," he answered and turned to look at her. "By the way, you told her of all people about my childhood. You will embarrass me until my death, don't you?"

"As I already said, it's my duty as the older sibling," she laughed. "Why does it bother you so much? You don't have anything to hide. I think Her Majesty liked what I told her."

"Someday I'll have my revenge," he sighed.

"Brother," she said as her smile vanished from her face, "Please, promise me you will come back."

"Don't be ridiculous, Anna."

"Promise it."

"Okay, I promise I will come back," he sighed and looked for a time, "I have to go."

"I'll see you once you come back."

"Goodbye, sister," he smiled at her.

The Destiny was a massive three kilometer long starship, which had a resemblance to old sea ships with narrow body and high superstructure, which however was symmetric, going both upwards and downwards. It carried five hundred fighters, a pair of two-hundred-meter-long frigates and ten shuttles along with various research and reconnaissance equipment. The destiny was armed with two ship-long main guns and other smaller weapons, which were able to obliterate every life on the planets. An advanced shielding was there to defend the crew from any danger. In spite of the size, the Destiny was one of the fastest ships of the Empire bigger than hundred meter due to a very controversial enormous zero element core and massive engines. The construction of the core led to many discussions. There were many who said it was a waste of highly valuable resource, since one could use the amount for a dozen dreadnaughts. Captain Shepard was sure in the success of the mission. How could one fail with the Destiny?

"Captain, we're nearing the orbit of the Relay. It's active, we're ready to jump," the first pilot said.

"Set the coordinates and move on with the jump."

"The coordinates are set, all systems are green. Approaching the Relay."

The bridge wasn't the usual one. It was a small round room in the heart of the starship. There were three pilots, the captain, a xo, a communication officer and a warfare officer. A moment later all of them felt the usual but unpleasant sensation of the transit.

"Captain, the Relay Beta-1 is passive," the pilot said.

"Good," he nodded, "There are three more Relays." He turned to the XO and added, "Commander, begin the launching procedures for frigates. Send the Klotho and the Lachesis to investigate Beta-2 and Beta-3 Relays. As soon as they undock, direct the Destiny to the Beta-4."

"Aye, captain."

He sighed and looked at the personal terminal, which indicated that the main objective of the mission was changed. He was surprised, since it indicated that the original objective was only a fiction. He was even more surprised as he found out that he had a message from the empress with details to the new mission.

_Captain John Gregory Shepard,_

_I'm sure you're surprised to receive the message and a new objective. It was a necessity to conceal the real goal of your mission. The new objective and this message are restricted information you may share only with those who has access level 7 and above until you face the subject of the new objective. The information is to be network-restricted. We don't want to cause panic and the information to land in the wrong hands._

_As you know the civilization of the Ancients was destroyed by the war. What almost no one know is they were wiped out by the ancient machine race they named the Reapers. It's a race of massive synthetic starships of dreadnought size. All the information you need on them was made available to you. _

_We can only hope to be ready to face them, but we can't afford to live in isolation anymore, since we have nearly depleted our last element zero mine and intelligence didn't discover any new yet. Other resources are going low too. The exploration of the space without Relays as well as building new ones is too expensive. We need more active Relays._

_You should know that the ship was designed to fight the Reapers. Every weapon was made with the thought of fighting them. The main guns are designed to penetrate their shields with one and only hit. In spite of it, your main objective is not to fight them, but to gather information. They're too numerous for the Destiny. _

_Sincerely,_

_Victoria Romanova, the ninth Empress of the Solar Empire._

_P.S. Making allies think about our opinion on the morality, norms and values. We don't need allies who may want to corrupt our citizens and destabilize the society._

He frowned being bewildered by the new revelation. He opened the database and queried every information available on the Reapers and after few hours sighed. The mission became even more troublesome he assumed at first. He could now understand the amounts of money invested into the military. However he couldn't be sure the Empire was safe despite all the efforts, but he would do everything to ensure the safety of the Empire. He would hold on his word to the Empress. He won't fail. While he read about the Reapers, he received a report on Relays, which were investigated by frigates. All of them were inactive.

"Captain, the Beta-4 Relay is inactive," the pilot said.

"Excellent," the captain smiled. "The Klotho is to activate the Beta-1 Relay and contact the Empire. The sectors Beta and DB-01 are safe to claim for the Empire. I want Commander Lee of the Klotho head to the Destiny immediately. I command him to leave the ship to the XO. Return the Lachesis to the Destiny. In meantime begin the activation of the Beta-4 Relay."

"Aye, aye, captain."

"Mitsuharu," Shepard said to his XO, "Gather everyone with access level 7 and above in the main conference room in four hours. I'll be in my quarters."

Then he stood up and left the bridge heading to his quarters. He was going to use every available minute to rest and since he didn't really sleep the night before, these four hours couldn't be used better. The ship was way too big for walking all the way, so there were enough turbo-lifts around the ship and the captain had his own. As he reached his quarters, he took clothes off and lay in the bed and fell asleep. It was like a second as Shepard woke up from the clock alarm. The captain took shower, dressed himself and went to the conference room.

When he entered the conference room, all the officers took their seats already. There weren't many with the access level that high. His own XO - first commander Shizue Mitsuharu, commander Malou Lee of the Klotho, her XO lieutenant-commander Gilles Hughes, commander Anton Bovelin of the Lachesis and his XO lieutenant-commander Frímann Ellertsson, commander Cheng Han, who was Mitsuharu's vice and lieutenant-commander Janina Hoffmann the head of the scientific part of the crew.

"At easy," Shepard said immediately, "I know the most of you for years, no reason to be all business here. No doubt you're wondering why I gathered all of you here. The reason is simple, our main objective was altered. To be exact, we've got access to the original objective, which was classified until we reach beyond the borders of the Empire."

"What is the new mission exactly?" Mitsuharu asked.

He looked at his most trusted friend and a comrade Shizue. She had a Japanese ancestry, but was born in the Administrative Region North America. He wouldn't admit it, but he found her regular features, black hair and large dark eyes quite attractive. He knew, however, she wasn't interested in any kind of relationship which isn't friendship and was happy to share the opinion. Twelve years ago at the age of sixteen they were admitted to the Imperial Naval Academy at the same time. They both left it five years later in rank of ensigns being assigned to the same cruiser, the Annapurna. Four years later, when count Shepard was promoted to the rank of commander, he was transferred to the cruiser Mont Blanc. The commander requested lieutenant-commander Shizue Mitsuharu to be his XO. The request was accepted and soon they became known for the most impressive performance in war games. Their ship was the only undefeated one for three years in the row in both space and surface war games. If one would ask them, they would brush it off saying it was the achievement of the whole crew. It was the main reason they and the most of the old crew were transferred from the Mont Blanc to the Destiny. Almost everyone in the conference room except Janina Hoffmann served with him on the cruiser.

"The information I will share with you has to be excluded from network access and can't be shared with anyone who doesn't have access level 7 or above until we encounter the subject of the objective. It's direct order from the Empress and you all know the law," he said, and looked at officers. He took chips with data on Reapers and handed it over to them. "This is available information on the species of ancient highly advanced machines that were responsible for the end of the Ancients' civilization. You will have time to read it later. The main objective is to find out if they're still in the galaxy and if not, how much is known about them by other species we may encounter. Our knowledge about the Reapers is not to share with any alien civilization we may encounter unless the Empress orders it."

"Well, it's the best surprise I ever had," Shizue said smiling.

"It's an understatement, commander Mitsuharu," Lee said and turned to the captain, "Do you know more about the Reapers, or is it all we have?" he pointed to the chip.

"The chip contains all the information on the Reapers the humanity currently has. I suggest you read it after the meeting is over. It's our mission to find out more. Any other questions?" he asked but didn't receive one. Well there wasn't much to ask, no one had enough information to formulate a question. "We proceed to the Gamma sector. Be ready for the transit in twenty minutes. Dismissed."

He sighed and left the conference room heading to the bridge. Mitsuharu followed him but was silent thinking over the new information her eyes locked on her communicator which she used to read about the Reapers. When they reached the bridge, he took his place in the captain's chair. Soon the ship made another transit through the Relay and reached the Gamma sector.

"Gamma-1 Relay is passive," reported the pilot.

"Set the course to the Gamma-2 Relay," Shepard said and sighed. He wished the entire trip would be this peaceful. As soon as he thought it, he saw it on the face of the pilot, who turned to him, that the peace was over.

"Captain, we're getting readings. An unidentified vessel is approaching the Gamma-2 Relay."

He looked up to his panel, and sighed with relief. It was too small to be a Reaper, but just in case…

"Engage level two combat readiness," he commanded and switched the ship's readiness level. It meant that fighter pilots meant to stay nearby their vessels. Both frigates were ready to undock to provide additional assistance in the battle. Additionally it meant that no alcohol for the crew in the bars. Everyone on the ship knew however, that the second level implied a contact with an alien vessel.

"So we aren't alone," Mitsuharu said.

"We aren't," Shepard nodded as he watched a computer generated model of the alien starship.

"I doubt it's an Ancients' vessel. The data says it's technologically obsolete compared to the latest ships of the Ancients found on the Earth."

"It could be a vessel of one of the lesser civilizations."

"Captain, we found a functional information transmission," said the communication officer. "The most bandwidth is heavily encoded, but we could try to break it using our computers from the research division."

"Send a request for time estimation, lieutenant Awad. You said the most of it is encoded. What is not encoded?"

"We're not sure yet. The bandwidth is very limited. I'll be able to answer in few minutes," He paused. "I received time estimation from the RD. It will take more than a hundred fifty hours to decode the transmission."

"Proceed at low priority as long as the computational powers are free."

"It's ready," the lieutenant said and frowned, "Well, I don't know what the transmission is. Looks like some slop bucket for all kind of things."

"Bring something on to the main screen," Mitsuharu said.

The next moment most part of the audience turned bright red, the other part green. They were seeing the most repulsive thing they had ever seen in their lives. There were exactly two individuals on the screen. A blue one resembled a human female, and the second one was some kind of large reptile.

"Turn this thing off!" commanded the XO and as the comm. Lieutenant did it, she continued, "What the hell was that?"

"I said it was garbage," Awad said.

"Were they even of the same species?" the second pilot asked.

"Williams, do your job," snapped Mitsuharu. "Is there something appropriate in this… transmission?" Shepard asked.

"Well, there are more appropriate things, but the most is about… mating."

"Why do they send these things?" the XO asked.

"They don't, videos have a public access. Basically everyone can watch them. They won't be sent to somebody, they're just placed there for others to watch. It's like the Imperial Knowledge Archive in some way."

"The Galaxy Sex Archive," the warfare officer snorted and began to laugh.

"Very funny, Andersen. It's disgusting," Mitsuharu said with a scowl.

"So, the computer managed to filter… unwanted data," the comm. Lieutenant said. "Let's see," he murmured and brought another video on to the main screen.

For the next ten minutes they watched as some creatures, that resembled humanoid birds without wings, were doings something no one really understood. They spoke some language, which was already in the process of decoding. The second half of the video these creatures were using some kind of weapons to fight each other which was far more interesting.

"Do they film their wars of was that only a fiction like our historical recreations?" Mitsuharu asked confused.

"Don't be ridiculous, Shizue," Shepard said, "It's probably a fiction movie of some sort. I would like to understand what they are talking about."

"They do place those videos for a public view. Why wouldn't they film their wars? They seem to be extremely violent."

"We were violent before the Empire too," Shepard argued. "And if you consider every third citizen of the Empire has at least ten years of military experience, these species would think the same about us."

"We didn't have a war for a long time."

"As I said it's probably fiction or a historical recreation," he sighed and asked the comm. lieutenant, "Connect us to the RD. I want to hear scientific opinion."

"Connection established," the lieutenant answered and brought the view from the RD on the secondary screen. On the other end were Janina Hoffmann and the whole scientific team.

"Commander Hoffmann," the captain said, "Did you see these videos the lieutenant showed us?"

"Yes, he sent them to us. We're currently analyzing these and other videos. Too early to say something about their culture. We hope to decode some languages in about six hour. There are many, but some are used more frequently."

"Excellent," the XO said.

"What's the recommendation of the RD on the best course of action?" Shepard asked.

"We advise you to lay low on the orbit of third the gas giant until we can give you more information about these species."

"Good," the captain nodded, "I'll follow the advice."

The Destiny stayed on the orbit of the gas giant for two standard days. The mission didn't have a time limit and it was only logical to use time to learn about species currently residing in the galaxy. The captain was in his quarters. He hadn't contacted the RD yet, instead Shepard used his time to learn more by himself using this strange network as scientist called it, since all the languages were decoded after only eight hours. The RD found glossaries and linguistic rules for other languages in the network, which was translated to the Imperial common as the Extranet. They found out that they had access only to the part of the network. To access the whole thing they needed to decode the other part of the bandwidth. It was however a problem of the Research Division and they were working on it. He preferred to learn about alien races. He knew now, that these avian-like species were the turians, blue ones – asari, the race which fascinated scientists on board of the Destiny. The reptilian ones were krogan. Even after two days he had headaches at the memory of that first disgusting video with a krogan and an asari.

"Shepard," he heard the voice of Shizue from his communicator. "The RD is ready for the report."

"Understood. I'll be on the bridge soon. Give me fifteen minutes," he said and broke the connection.

He stood up, put a coat on and went to the lift, which brought him to the bridge. The RD was already on the screen. This time there were only head researchers and officers of the division in the room. He took his seat and commanded to give the report.

"We analyzed every available data from the Extranet and were able to deduce many important facts about alien species", Hoffmann began, "Let's start with the overall situation. Currently there are many different species coexisting in the galaxy, which is by most unexplored. For last thousands years there were no serious military conflicts, however, we found out there were disturbing events before. The krogan species, for example, were irresponsibly uplifted and used to lead a war against aggressive race named the rachni and then, after rachni were extinguished, the krogan were subjected to the biological warfare, which resulted in their current declining situation…"

"…The main government body is the Citadel Council. Obviously it resides at the Citadel. The Council consists of three members: an asari, a turian and a salarian. Other species have embassies and considered associate members, but don't really have a say at anything. The Council, however, has authority only in the Council Space which isn't even the largest part of the galaxy. The Terminus Systems don't fall under control of the Council. Slavery, piracy, constant conflicts predominate there. Species residing there refuse to accept the rule of the Citadel's Council. Beside there are regions, which only partly controlled by the Council…"

"…Overall they aren't as technological advanced as the Empire. Our military and computer technologies are slightly more advanced, moreover they have no knowledge of the construction of Mass Relays, we inherited from the Ancients and slightly improved over time. They rely on existing Relay network completely, consequently we can assume they have much less information about the Ancients they oddly call the Protheans. They honestly believe the Protheans built the Mass Relay Network. However, we have our own drawbacks in some areas. We found many fascinating technologies and devices, like the thing they call omni-tool…"

"…As we both know, the Solar Empire won't accept the rule of the Citadel's Council, so it's advisable to search for allies except the asari, the turians or the salarians. The Turian Hierarchy has similar values and even comparable state duty, which is almost as long as ours, but a bit more flexible. They could be considered potential ally, however the turians are one of the major races of the Citadel Space. An alliance with the Hierarchy is highly improbable without us accepting the rule of the Council. An alliance with the asari and the salarians is improbable as well. There exists, however, practically a hundred-percent chance for a non-aggression and trade pacts between the Empire and the Citadel…"

"… However, the quarians are excellent material for an alliance, despite their reputation in the Citadel Space. They place a great value on the community, loyalty, trust and cooperation. Despite the life of nomads they're known for their skills with technology and often are abused as cheep but qualitative labour due to their lack of a choice. The Empire could use their help and the quarians aren't in the state they can decline our offer to be part of the Empire. They aren't numerous and we could easy sustain them if needed for some time. Not to forget they're familiar with the artificial intelligence. Besides, we need man-power for colonization of new worlds, especially since the last discovery of a habitable planet with most life based on dextro-amino acids…"

"…the krogan could be potential allies if we find a cure to the genetic warfare called genophage. However a cure isn't recommended due to their longlivity, vitality and originally rapid reproduction. Basically they would overpopulate the whole galaxy if they could. We advise for a careful approach if it's absolutely needed. They aren't trusting species, mostly because of the genophage and never had needed values to join the Empire. Like the quarians they have very controversial reputation, and it's mostly deserved. The majority of the galaxy, however, seems to forget that before the genophage the krogan had a highly attuned sense of honour, courage and strength. The krogan may be useful as mercenaries…"

"…an alliance with the batarians is out of questions. The Empress will rather declare a full scale war on them to release slaves. Alliances with other races are too difficult to consider. We have barely enough information. As a conclusion to the diplomatic part of our analysis, we advise you to contact the Migrant Fleet; for they are the only secure ally. Besides that we need to establish diplomatic relationship with Citadel's Council. They will grant us an Embassy, because they won't risk a war against the Empire. The Destiny's size and firepower is a good argument in the discussion with the Council, so a mock demonstration of fighters and frigates would be useful in the Serpent Nebula. I should add, the opinion of the RD may be corrected, after we get a full access to the extranet…"

"…From now on the path to the Citadel lies through active Relays. The Gamma-2 Relay leads to the Omega Nebula, where the Omega Station is located. Obviously it has another name in Asari, but it's a logical translation, since the station has the name of the nebula. The station is the unofficial capital of the Terminus Systems. We advise to go directly to the Citadel, we need to test them and probably sign some mock treaties before we return to the Empire. Sightseeing at the Omega and in the Terminus Systems is highly unadvisable," the woman smiled. "That's all we had to say, captain."

"Thank you for your hard work," he said and broke the connection and commanded, "The course on the Gamma-2 Relay."

"A bit less than I hoped," the XO said.

"What do you mean?" Shepard asked.

"The Migrant Fleet. I hoped for a stronger civilization."

"I believe you're upset by something entirely different."

"Well, I'm sure you're upset too. I hoped the mission would be more… demanding."

"You should be happy our mission proved to be simpler than anyone could imagine," he said reading an encoded message from Janina: '_There is a small to none chance the Citadel Council will believe in the AI threat and the real purpose of the Citadel._'

"I know, but theoretically we could return to the Empire any moment now. It's disappointing."

"True," he sighed and smiled, "But you should try to take comfort in messing with the Citadel Council."

"Yeah, sure," she rolled her eyes.

"We're ready for a jump, captain," a pilot said.

"Proceed. From now on we move directly to the Citadel without further confirmation," the captain said.

"Aye, aye, captain," the pilot answered and several seconds later the ship jumped to the Omega Nebula.

"Do you want to take a look at the station?" the XO asked.

"No need, we already have pictures and detailed information from the extranet."

"The Delta-6 Relay is active, engaging the Relay," the pilot said.

The way to the Citadel took sixteen hours, which were pretty peaceful. The RD continued to analyze new data, but made no significant corrections. John made sure to have a good sleep before they went through the last Relay to the Serpent Nebula. It amazed him, how low was the security. Basicaly the Relays weren't protected at all. It sure would be bad news for the Empire if a three-kilometer-long ship could pass through all Relays to the Earth not being stopped by Defence Forces. The Destiny was sighted by alien vessels, but neither ship nor group of ships took the opportunity to contact the unknown enormous by their standards vessel. Do they believe the Citadel to be secure enough to defend itself against the Destiny?

"Launch fighter wings one and two. Undock both frigates," the captain commanded, "Let's show them we aren't to be trifled with. Approach the Citadel. Slowly."

Next minutes the small Empire's fleet was approaching the ancient station. Sensors detected the chain of the defensive fleet, which was ready to fight an unknown threat.

"More vessels are coming through the Relays," the XO said.

'_Well,'_ he mused, _'They're able to defend themselves. We were obviously led into a trap, but regardless these defences are hardly enough for a capital of civilization. Hell, it's barely enough to hold of the Destiny._' He sighed, _'Like the Ancients, they wouldn't stand a chance against the Reapers.'_ He could see about fifteen frigate-size, ten cruiser-size, and three dreadnaught-size ships and as far as he could say they had no fighters in any form only small support ships, but then again, there were no information about fighters in the extranet at all and he knew from experience, no dreadnought couldn't stand a chance against squadron of small and manoeuvrable fighters. Only one thing was distracting him: the Citadel. It was a breathtaking structure with petal-esque arms that reminded him of a flower. '_How could the machines build something like that?_'

"Captain, they're trying to contact us," said the comm. lieutenant. "They're sending both holographic and plain visual information."

"Bring the plain one on the main screen and open the channel," Shepard commanded and as soon as the lit up and showed the face of an asari, he turned an translator on said, "This is the Destiny, a starship of the Solar Empire. I'm captain John Gregory Shepard, the appointed representative of the Empire and Her Imperial Majesty Empress Victoria the First," he then grinned predatory and added, "We came in peace..."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**

Notice: because of a taboo on AI in the Empire there is little automatization on the Destiny!

* * *

><p><em><span>Ranks, Chain of Command:<span>_

Captain of the Destiny - First Commander (XO) - Commander of Klotho, Commander of Lachesis, (b).

a) Commander of the Klotho/Lachesis - Lieutenant-Commander (XO) - Infantary Lieutenant, Starship Lieutenant, (Maintance).

a.1) Infantary Lieutenant - Sergant-Major - Sergant - Corporal - Private.

a.2) Starship Lieutenant - Sub-lieutenant - Ensign.

a.3) Maintance: Sergant - Corporal - Private.

b) First Commander (XO) - Research Division lieutenant-commander, Fighter Forces lieutenant-commander, Infantary Colonel, Special Forces Colonel, Starship Lieutenant-Commander, (a.3).

b.1) RD Lieutenant-commander - Lieutenant - Head Researcher - Researcher.

b.2) FF Lieutenant-commander - Wing Commander - Squadron Leader - Flight Lieutenant - Sub-lieutenant - Corporal - Private.

b.3) IF Colonel - Major - Infantary Lieutenant - see (a.1).

b.4) SF Colonel - Major - Lieutenant.

b.5) Starship Lieutenant-Commander - Lieutenant - see (a.2).

Naval officers are senior to Infantary/Special Forces officers. For Example IF/SF Colonel is equal to naval Lieutenant.

* * *

><p><em><span>Warfare Forces of the Destiny<span>_

If you wonder why there is a warfare officer, lieutenant Andersen on the bridge, he is there only to make communications between the captain or his XO and the lieutenant-commander easier. Basically he is the second comm. lieutenant. The captain gives orders, the warfare officer pass the command to the lieutenant-commander, who assigns tasks to the lieutenants: a weapon systems lieutenant (main guns, turrets, missiles, torpedoes), a shielding systems lieutenant and electronic warfare lieutenant (signal jamming, EMP weapons, shield disruptors, etc…).

* * *

><p><em><span>Fighter Division Structure:<span>_

There are 5 wings in the division.

Every wing consists of 5 squadrons. There are 25 squadrons in total.

Every squadron consists of 5 flights. There are 125 flights in total

Every flight consists of 4 fighters. The Destiny carries 500 fighters in total.

* * *

><p><em><span>Research Division Structure<span>_

Research Division consists of five areas: Xenophychology, Xenobiology, Economics, Politics and Technology. Every area has a Head and 10-15 researchers under his/her command. The communication between captain and research heads is handled by RD officers. There are 6 of them. A lieutenant-commander and a lieutenant for each head researcher.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2.<strong>

To say the Citadel Council was in panic would be an understatement. It was close to chaos, since no one really knew what to do with the enormous dreadnought, which appeared out of the thin air. The patrol ships were monitoring and reporting its movements since he went through the Omega-3 Relay and soon it was clear the vessel headed directly to the Citadel. Despite the vessel didn't show any aggression towards the monitoring forces, it was decided to stop it preferably by diplomatic means in the Serpent Nebula before it reached the ancient station. The turians planned to trap the dreadnought after it would show up in the Serpent Nebula, it was however before the vessel launched two hundred vessels which were so small and fast that none in the Citadel Fleet knew how to defend against them if they happen to be armed, and everyone was sure that they were in fact.

"We have new data on the ship," reported a salarian to the Council, "The dreadnought has got two main guns, which go at least through the front half of the vessel. It must be extremely powerful. There are more than two hundred smaller guns."

"It's larger than the Destiny Ascension and is better armed," the Salarian councillor said.

"Do not open fire first," the turian councillor said, frowning. "Consequences of the battle can be devastating for both sides. We don't know if they have more ships like this one."

"Try to establish a contact," the asari said. "They didn't seem to be aggressive until now. It's probably a response to the presence of the Citadel Fleet. It could be they feel threatened. "

The three councillors hoped they would be able to start negotiations to prevent a conflict similar to the Rachni Wars, which happened a long time ago, but was still fresh in minds of the Council races. The krogan were a bitter reminding of it.

"Are there any new information on origin of the vessel?" the turian councillor asked.

"No," the salarian answered. "Nothing past they were first sighted in the Omega… The Destiny Ascension is receiving a transmission from the vessel."

"Redirect the transmission to us," the asari councillor said.

The image the three councillors received was of two unknown species. The government body of the Citadel quickly identified one as male and the second as a female. She stood behind the male person. They somehow resembled asari, though the pair had surprisingly some kind of fur on top of their heads, resembling rare creatures they had seen on several worlds. The both had black fur, the male had, however, a very short one, while the female a long one. Even though they were of the same species, appearances were quite different. They couldn't tell if it was a sex distinction though.

"This is the Destiny, a starship of the Solar Sovereignty," said the male individual surprisingly in asari, "I'm Captain John Gregory Shepard, the appointed representative of the Sovereignty and Her Sovereign Majesty Sovereign Victoria the First," he then grinned predatory and added, "We came in peace and would like to speak to the current Citadel Council."

The three were relieved these species spoke of peace. The asari councillor noticed whoever the person was, he used a translator, because she read different sounds from his lips she actually heard. That meant these species knew the Citadel races better than otherwise and that was disturbing. The councillors were slightly confused by the use of words, but understood the difficulties of translation if the race had a unique form of government. Both individuals noticed the change of their conversation partners, when the Council took over the negations, and appeared to be waiting for a response.

"On behalf of all Citadel Races we welcome you," the asari said. "We're the Citadel Council, the current government body of the Citadel Space. I'm councillor Tevos. This is councillor Berenis," she nodded towards the turian, and then to the salarian, "And councillor Dolei. We would be glad to meet you in person to start negotiations. You can dock the ship to the Citadel or use an shuttle for transportation to the station."

"I'm afraid it isn't possible. Under the existing regulations of the Sovereign Navy, it's prohibited to dock or to land any vessel of value on the space stations, planets and other structures and objects under control of organisations or states, which have no or hostile relations with the Sovereignty. The Destiny is a vessel of value. As the captain of said vessel I must avoid situations, where I may be forced to take decisions against my own will. Basically the negations on the Citadel wouldn't be recognized by the Solar Sovereignty, if I decide to step on to the Citadel before we sign a treaty or prepare all clauses of an agreement so that my visit would be a formality. I propose to carry on negations by the means of the remote transmission. Alternatively I will accept you or your representative on board of the Destiny," he said.

The moment the captain finished his explanation of the rejection, the councillors understood the negations would be difficult, since the most of other races accepted the invitation being less powerful and technologically advanced. The captain, however, was very confident and that meant neither the Citadel Fleet nor the Citadel itself impressed him enough. The councillors had to say, that looking at the Destiny, it was understandable confidence and that was a dangerous situation. There was a possibility, that for the first time they were approached by more advanced race and wouldn't lead negation from the position of strength. They weren't, however, ready to lose power. Councillors looked at each other for a moment.

"We will determine the best course of action in few moments," councillor Tevos said.

"You may take your time," the captain said and closed the connection.

The turian councillor clenched his fists, since it was clear that the negations weren't going in their favour.

"It may be beneficial to make a visit on the Destiny," the salarian said. "We might discover beneficial information on the Solar Sovereignty, the Destiny and their technologies."

"Too dangerous, it would put us in the position the captain of the Destiny seems to be avoiding. We could use a representative, who would consult us on each clause."

"We can't afford to entrust the negations to somebody else, it would put us at disadvantage," the asari argued.

"True," councillor Dolei said, "Since they don't seem to be hostile, we might get the information through diplomatic means. The negations are our priority. We can always bring the intelligence into play later."

They exchanged glances and the decision was made. Soon the connection was re-established.

"We decided on the remote negations," the asari said. "Do you wish a postponement of the first round of negations?"

"No, I'm ready when you are," Shepard answered.

"Before we start, do you need any question on us, the government system or any other common topics?"

"No, we know enough from the extranet."

"Good, we have, however, questions. First, we need to ask the name of your species."

"Human," he said this time obviously without use of a translator.

"You call your state the Solar Sovereignty. We have a problem with the word Sovereignty. Obviously a translation mistake," the salarian stated, "We would like to hear the original name and the meaning of it. Furthermore we need more information about your species, government, technology and origin."

"It is the Solar Empire," answered the human. "To put it simple, the Empire means supremacy of one state over others. Said states, however, are nothing more than a formality now. They chose representatives from their regions or sectors for the Council, or, if I use the original word – the Senate. Seventeen is the fixed number of regions. The larger the Empire becomes, the more regions will be combined," he said and paused.

"The supreme ruler of the Empire is an Emperor if it's a male ruler or Empress otherwise. The ruler can choose whether he wants to participate in the sitting of the Senate, or not. Mostly - not. Either way the ruler has the right of veto upon any decision of the Senate. Furthermore the ruler can propose a new bill, which will be normally accepted unless more than eighty percent of the Senate votes against it. That happens on a very few occasions. The Senate can propose to change the ruler. If the Imperial Family chose to accept it, the Senate has enough votes and there is a pretender to the position of the supreme ruler, the ruler will be changed. The pretender is always from the Imperial Family and must be either sibling or offspring of the ruling one. Never happened though, the Imperial Family would more likely manage existing problems internally if the ruler is unable to rule."

"Separate states and regions mostly have own laws, since different environments mean different requirements. One can't hope to have same laws in play on a mining planet and a habitable garden world. A local law, however, can't contradict to the global law. It's similar to your own government system, as you see."

"Indeed," the turian said. "You have, however, to tell us where the Solar Empire is located."

"I'm not authorized to disclose location of the Empire until further notice from the Empress. As soon as the Empress ratifies the treaty, you will be informed if the Empress is willing to talk about the location."

"You can't possibly hope for a treaty without informing us about the location of your homeworld," the Berenis said.

"It's in your best interest," the captain said calmly.

"What about technology?" the salarian said.

"You must understand that I can't share anything of strategic value before we start actual negations. It would be pointless otherwise."

"Let's take a pause for now," councillor Tevos suggested noticing annoyance on the face of the turian.

"I agree," Shepard said, "However, I would like to continue the negations as soon as possible."

"Understandable, but we have other pressing matters to attend to. I suggest we continue one standard day later."

Tevos could see, the human wasn't pleased with the delay, but reluctantly agreed.

* * *

><p>"They will analyze everything you said to prepare for the negations," Mitsuharu said to Shepard.<p>

"Obviously," he sighed, "But there were nothing I could do to prevent it. They would have taken time to take some advantage from me either way."

"Guess, we had to give them head start," she laughed, "They barely know anything about the Empire to start with."

"Indeed," he smiled. "But I don't want to give them any advantage, and I believe we should mess with them some more. Lieutenant Awad, what is known about the current location of the Migrant Fleet?"

"They're in the planetary system Ilare, the Mass Relay 22-7. The name means 'noble' in asari."

"22-7?" he murmured and glanced at the map on his panel, "Only a hour away from here… Send the notice to the Council, we'll be back."

"Aye, captain."

"Course on Ilare system," he commanded.

"On it, captain," replied the pilot.

"The Council won't appreciate it," said the XO.

"It will make them nervous, force them to make mistakes. The more emotions they have while negotiating, the better conditions we will have. By the way, you're more than thirty hours on your feet. Go get some rest."

"I'm fine, Shepard."

"It's an order, commander."

"Aye, captain," she said sharply and left the bridge.

"The Citadel Fleet is contacting us," the comm. lieutenant said.

"Ignore," the captain said.

"Approaching the Relay."

Soon they reached the Ilare, sensors detected thousands of vessels. It was impressive sight, if one could call it 'sight', since the only thing one saw – red dots on the sensor output screen. The quarians were orbiting small rocky planet, obviously stripping it for resources. Shepard decided to not approach the Fleet before contacting it.

"Lieutenant Andersen, try to jam communications on those five vessels that joined us on the trip from the Citadel," the captain said, "Lieutenant Awad, open the communication channel to the quarian fleet."

"The jamming was successful, captain," the warfare officer.

"And the connection is established," Awad said.

"On the screen," the captain said.

The quarians transmitted only non-holographic data unlike the Citadel Council. On the screen was a quarian, whom the captain inspected curiously. As expected he was in the full-body golden coloured suit and the face was hidden behind the mask. There were found only a few pictures of their faces in the extranet, it seemed no one was really interested in how they looked like. Captain Shepard found them alright. Not repulsive like the batarians or elcor at least.

"Who are you and what do you want?" the quarian asked.

"Captain John Gregory Shepard of the Destiny," he said and decided to be less formal with the quarians, "I'm the appointed representative of my race. As you probably can tell from the readings, we're technologically advanced race and until today weren't in contact with the Citadel. I have a beneficial proposition for the Migrant Fleet and would like to speak with whoever is in command and can make decisions."

"I'm Admiral Zeem'Xel vas Neema, I can't make decisions, but I can hear you out and decide if your proposition deserves attention from the Conclave."

"I propose you to join our state," the captain answered.

"Why would we want to join it?"

"We know you're searching for a habitable planet. Recently we've found a habitable planet with the life mostly based on dextro-amino acids. We're levo-amino acid species, so it's not really suitable for us without global terraforming."

"And you're offering us the planet? Why? What's your benefit and what does the Citadel Council say about it?"

"We need allies. I can't tell you details over unsecure connection, but I would accept an invitation on board of your ship."

"You will have to wait until I contact the Conclave."

"How long?"

"The next Conclave meeting is in seven hours, I'll contact you in six."

"It's acceptable. I'll be waiting," Shepard said, and broke the connection.

"Captain, are you sure it's safe to go there?" Andersen asked.

"The RD concluded that I as a captain of a ship would be perfectly safe on the vessel of the Migrant Fleet. They're honourable people and would never hurt a negotiator."

"They created a hostile AI, though."

"Yes," the captain nodded, "Everyone makes mistakes, and they surely won't repeat it. Lieutenant Awad, call for the commander-lieutenant Berezin to take over the bridge. Lieutenant Andersen you're taking my place until commander arrives," he commanded, and left for his quarters.

Shepard knew, he was rushing things, but when he thought about it, he was sure it was a right decision to do. The Council should know, they won't have any power over the Empire. The next step was to make sure they feel a need to maintain good relations with Empire. The goal was to do it without giving them too much. He couldn't let the Council know about construction of the Relays, it was disadvantageous to share weapon technologies and it was desirable to not share the existence of ships, which do not need to discharge a core at all or have long discharge intervals like the Destiny. Besides, the earlier the Empire will know about the outside situation the better. The more information he could gather, the more advantages the Empress would have.

Six hours later the quarian admiral contacted the Destiny as promised and stated that the Conclave was going to meet the captain.

"Prepare the SF-1 squad to accompany me to the Migrant Fleet," Shepard commanded through the communicator.

"Aye, sir. The transport is ready at the docking bay 5."

He left his quarters and took a lift to the docking bays. The squad consisting of ten operatives was already there waiting for the captain. From thousand soldiers on board these were one of three squads delegated to the Destiny from the Imperial Special Forces. One of them was highly trained biotic equipped with newest biotic implant. Being biotic didn't mean he specialized only in the controlling the dark matter. He was professional at everything that had something to do with their job, like other operatives. Shepard cringed at the thought of the price which the Empire paid for the existence of biotics. Being technologically and mentally unprepared to handle element Zero, the Empire used it carelessly for decades, resulting in millions deaths from cancer and other illnesses caused by exposure to the element Zero, until strong regulations on use of the said element were established.

* * *

><p>The admiral Zeem'Xel vas Neema contacting the Conclave and putting forward an offer from a new-found race was a surprise for the ruling body of the Migrant Fleet. No one knew exact details of the proposition, but for the admiral to bring something like this and to invite an unknown outsider to the Fleet, it must be something very important, so all elected members of the Conclave were looking forward to the meeting with said guest. The Conclave was a relatively large body consisting of more than hundred members and there was only one ship, where all the meeting were being held. When the guest arrived quarians looked at him with interest. Obviously he was wearing a full-body suit to ne infect the environment, but they could tell he had a similar body build to an asari. He sat patiently as the Conclave began to discuss day to day problems. However the majority was curious as to why the human, so he called himself, was here, that's why the discussion ended quite fast and they moved to the proposition the human was going to make.<p>

"Captain John Gregory Shepard of the Destiny, we offer you a word now," said the quarian spokesman.

"Thank you," the human said as he stood up. "Honourable Conclave members, I'm captain John Gregory Shepard. I was appointed by our supreme ruler to be her representative in this part of the galaxy. As a representative I was given various rights to handle by the name of the supreme ruler. One of the most important parts of my mission is to search for allies. Over last few days I discovered that an alliance between the quarians and the Solar Empire would be beneficial to the both sides."

The admiral Zeem'Xel wasn't surprised, since he heard him, but he saw that Conclave was confused by his words and he understood the reason. Few, or better said no one, would consider to ally with the Migrant Fleet. What benefit could there be for any other race, which had planets and colonies? He saw with his own eyes reading of his ship and it was magnificent, no other race he knew could build something equal and to think this race would need the quarians as allies? It was bitter to admin, but the thought was just ridiculous. Furthermore the Citadel Council would demand to hand over the planet. The admiral doubted the Council would allow them to settle on the planet like always. Every single slightly habitable planet in the known space was claimed by the turians, who were in need of same type of worlds. They searched for a suitable planet, but sometimes he thought it was all in vain.

"Our state is growing constantly and with the growth, it needs more and more resources to sustain itself. The population growth is, however, slower than demand. We can't effectively colonize new discovered worlds. The life on one of the last discovered worlds was dextro-amino acid based and as we're levo-amino acid based species the perfectly habitable world was of no use, because the terraforming would be too costly considering the lack of colonists even though there is a Mass Relay in the system."

The idea of an suitable world for colonization directly connected to the Mass Relay Network was thrilling, but even if the admiral saw some truth in human's words, it didn't explained why he choose to approach the Migrant Fleet. Turians would be glad to take the planet and pay good amount of money if the planet was in the secure space. He could see the same thoughts were troubling the Conclave.

"I'm sure you're wondering what our benefit in the quarians colonizing a planet is. I assure you we have our benefit. If you agree, you would join the Solar Empire," he paused and explained, "It is the name of my state. The quarians joining the state would mean, you'd accept some basic rules and laws. The same laws the whole state is living by, you would be, however, free to set up local government body like this Conclave and develop your own law codex, assuming your local laws wouldn't be in conflict with the global ones. For example, the there is a law that states that any form of slavery is strictly forbidden in the Solar Empire, so you wouldn't be able to have slaves. There is another law that obligates every individual to serve the state in some way for fifteen years before starting own businesses. I'm not sure how long the average lifespan of a quarian is, but if it's shorter than ours, the duration of the state service would be shorter. Of course you would receive a vote in our version of the Conclave."

"Furthermore, you would help us colonize other planets with dextro-amino acids life, pay taxes, trade within and hopefully outside of the Solar Empire. It would help our economy in the future. Secondly, despite being technologically more advanced than the Citadel races in general, in some points we're still slightly behind. We don't have omni-tools or omni-gel for instance, but found them to be quite useful. I'm aware that you are known for your skills with technology, so it's another benefit."

"The third point is your knowledge of the artificial intelligence. We consider it one of the most dangerous threats to existence of any organic life and would gladly use your experience to defend our citizens against it."

The admiral frowned at the thought of the geth, but was relieved humans were so strongly opposed the very thought of an artificial intelligence. Even if he barely knew the humans, he wouldn't want them to experience something like the quarians did. No race should experience it. 'But where did this enmity towards AI came from? If they didn't know about the geth before, could they have something similar in their history?' he thought. He was, however, glad the human seemed to see past their mistake with the geth.

"Aside from planets to colonize we would protect you from outside threats with our military which is very strong. If you look at the ship currently orbiting the Migrant Fleet, you would see that no other race in the galaxy has a ship this powerful. Be assured we have much more," he paused for few seconds, "In first years the state will provide all needed resources and money to colonize the world. I can't promise it, but it's highly probable that in the future we could help you reclaim lost worlds from the geth, since the Solar Empire considers any artificial intelligence a threat that must be eliminated. If the Citadel won't do something about it, we will do it."

The last statement was like a bomb that suddenly blew up in the middle of the Conclave Hall. The reclaiming of their worlds was a dream of every quarian and the very thought about it thrilled all members of the Conclave. Admiral Zeem'Xal was bewildered by this turn of events. All in all it was an offer the quarians couldn't decline since it was giving a hope for a new start and possible restoration of everything they had lost. He didn't expect it when he decided to give the human a chance and speak before the Conclave. There was however a problem. Despite he could see now this Solar Empire wouldn't bother to ask the Citadel Council for a permission to colonize worlds, how could they know if the human and his state were trustworthy?

"As you probably see, our state is similar to the state formed by Citadel Council. We wouldn't, however, turn our backs on you like the Council in the time of need. The state cares about every citizen of the Solar Empire," he said and paused. "Soon I will have to return to the Citadel," the human continued, "to lead the negations with the Citadel Council. I hope to successfully negotiate a peace and trade treaties. You should, however, know that we won't bow to the rule of the Council. It's merely against principles of our state. In the meantime, you can think over my offer. I would be glad to answer any questions, if you have any."

The admiral decided to step in, "I would like to ask a question, if the Conclave doesn't mind." As there was no protest, he continued, "How can we be sure, it isn't trickery. You could lure us with lies and then, when we are on your territory, what would prevent your state from using force to destroy or enslave us? Being outside of Citadel Council's law you would be free to do what you want."

"I understand your doubt," the human said. "We would gladly accept observers. You may send a ship with us, when we return to the Solar Empire. Observers would be able to look at everyday life as it is, we will show them the planet I spoke of and much more."

"What is the location of your state?" a conclave member asked.

"I can't reveal it yet, but it is only the borders are only two Relays away from here."

* * *

><p>The Citadel Council was in trouble, nothing seemed to work with these new species. The time the Council had bought, resulted in the Destiny flying away from the Citadel and approaching the Migrant Fleet.<p>

"The quarians of all races!" exclaimed councillor Berenis. "Why would they be interested in contacting the race of thieves and scavengers?"

"The last thing we expected them to do," agreed the salarian councillor.

"What's next? Will they go to the Tuchanka? The krogan?" the turian said and snorted.

"You overlook the reason of the action," councillor Tevos said. "The human wasn't pleased by the one-day pause in the negations."

"Yes," the salarian said, "Acting like this, he's probably indicates that the Solar Empire isn't really interested in the negations."

"Either they don't need us or they're fools," the turian said. "And I'm sure it isn't the second."

"We must consider another question," the asari said, "Why the quarians?"

"Fleet size?" suggested the salarian, "Life style? Knowledge?"

"I don't see why they would be interested in the fleet size. However the unique life style as well the knowledge on artificial intelligence may have some interest for the humans," the asari said.

"An interest in the artificial intelligence may be dangerous," councillor Dolei said.

"We could demand the Migrant Fleet to cease any contact with humans," the turian said.

"We have no legal ground to demand it," councillor Tevos argued.

"The main problem is we know practically nothing about the Solar Empire, while he knows everything about the Citadel," councillor Berenis sighed. "And the intelligence proved to be completely incompetent. We don't even know where this blasted Empire is."

"We might consider alternative way to get the information," suggested the salarian councillor. "We let a SPECTRE handle it."

Tevos considered it for a moment and said, "I second the suggestion."

"Agree," the turian said.

"Tela Vasir is a suitable agent. More important free of missions at the moment," the asari said.

When she saw other councillors agreed, Tevos sent an urgent message to the asari SPECTRE. A few seconds later the SPECTRE opened her private channel to contact the Council.

"SPECTRE Vasir, we have a mission of great importance for you," the salarian said.

"I'm ready, councillors," the SPECTRE answered.

"You have to test capabilities of the certain dreadnought."

"By certain dreadnought you mean the human dreadnought everyone is speaking about, don't you?"

"Yes. Its current location is Ilare system, outside of the Council Space. In about eighteen hours the ship will try to return to the Serpent Nebula. We will block the Mass Relay to keep the dreadnought in the Attican Traverse but not for long. You have thirty hours to organize a full-scale attack on the way between Ilare and Citadel. Preferable before they reach the Citadel Space. The dreadnought should not be destroyed. There should be no leads left linking the Citadel to the attack. All available data on the dreadnought was sent to you and we will keep you up to date. You have budget of ten millions for the mission. Use expendable forces, they will be probably annihilated. You may proceed, SPECTRE."

"It will be done, councillors."

The asari councillor nodded and ended the conversation.

* * *

><p>"Now, all we have to do is to wait," she said.<p>

"Be safe, Shepard," Shizue said.

"I'm glad you're worried, commander," the captain grinned.

"Don't be ridiculous," she laughed, "I just don't want to be stuck in the Migrant Fleet."

"Don't worry. See you after the negations, Mitsuharu," he said and broke the connection to the Migrant Fleet.

He wasn't comfortable with the thought of his XO being left with the quarians, but there were many open questions and Shizue could handle the rest of the negations with the quarians. He could tell they were enthusiastic towards the idea of joining the Empire, but weren't sure if they could trust the Empire. It was obvious their trust in other races was damaged after the geth rebellion. He couldn't understand why the Council was so cruel towards them. John sighed.

"Course on the Relay. We're going back to the Citadel," he commanded.

"Aye, captain."

The ship went through the Relay and continued its path to next ones.

"Captain, the Relay Is blocked by Citadel Forces," the pilot said.

"We're receiving a transmission from the cruiser."

"Bring it on the screen," he said frowning, and saw a turian appear on the screen.

"We're sorry for inconvenience," the turian said, "We received the information about pirate activities and currently are working on the situation. We know of your negations with the Citadel Council and the Council was already informed about the situation. We ask you to wait a few hours until the way to the Citadel will be clear."

"Our ship is capable to defend against pirates," Shepard replied.

"I'm sorry, but I have orders."

"Fine, but I urge you to be fast with pirates. We don't have all the time in the universe," he said and broke the connection.

He looked up to the map and cursed. Any detour would take a day, because the Mass Relay was a primary one. He cursed, suspecting the blockade to be a part of the Council's play. He was sure there were absolutely no pirates behind the Relay. '_I make them pay for it_,' he thought grinned.

"Lieutenant Andersen, take over the bridge. Contact me when they give us a permission to proceed through the Relay."

He stood up and went to the recreation area. It was relatively small greenhouse, which had only decorative purpose. There were however a few fruit-bearing plants like an apple tree. There were, obviously, no apples, the crew already ate everything. He smiled at the thought and let out a disappointed sigh. The tree was genetically modified and bore fruits very fast, but it wouldn't happen at least for two weeks. There was however a blackcurrant bush, which seemed to be almost untouched. Well, who would dare to touch the bush if he personally commanded not to?

"Captain," he was surprised by a female voice and dropped a few berries.

"Well," he sighed, and looked up to the woman, "Your surprise cost me _four_ berries."

"Sorry, captain," she laughed.

She had a very short bright red hair, thin features and brown eyes. She was attractive, but what surprised him the most was her age. He didn't know exactly, but he could tell she was _young _for her rank. He was intrigued.

"Not funny, candidate McLerie," he smiled. "Those were my _favourite_ berries."

"Everyone knows that."

"Based on your presence in the greenhouse while level three is engaged, you're in reserve. My question is what a candidate does in reserve?"

"I was injured during last training session, have a day off," she said and sighed.

"Ah, so unfortunate… or fortunate, depends on how you look at it," he said and offered, "Some berries?"

"Thanks."

"You should feel privileged."

"I do," She grinned, "I'll be known as the only other person on the Destiny who ate blackberries."

"I made a celebrity of you, didn't I?" he asked slyly.

"Nah… I doubt that somebody find out about it," she grinned.

"Do you have something planned for next hours?"

"Nothing, I wanted to read something. Why? Do you have a better idea?"

"I would glad to drink a cup of coffee or tea with you," he suggested.

"Sure."

"By the way, I didn't ask your name."

"I'm Caitlyn. Caitlyn Alva McLerie."

"John Gregory Shepard, but I'm sure you knew it. Well, let's go."

She smiled and followed the captain to the officer's mess. Shepard poured a cup of coffee, while McLerie decided for tea and took a table at a far corner.

"So, how did a girl this young became an officer candidate of the FD?" he asked her.

"I'm good," she answered.

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen, I graduated early and started the Academy at the age of fifteen."

"But decided to drop it and become a fighter pilot instead of staying there to graduate as an officer?" he asked raising a brow.

"It was the only chance to be here on the Destiny."

"You realize that a position of fighter pilot is much more dangerous, don't you?"

"But someone have to pilot fighters, and I found out I really like it. Besides, I still made it to the officer.

"Depends on whether you pass the commission."

"It doesn't seem to be difficult."

"Some people always manage to fail it," John laughed.

"May I ask why you aren't on the bridge?" McLerie asked.

"The Relay to the Serpent Nebula is blocked due to the information about piracy."

"Exactly at the moment we wanted to go through the Relay? Can they be more obvious?" she snorted.

"Well, there is a small chance there is really some pirate. By the way, did you read public reports about the Citadel?"

"Yes, I did. It was interesting," she nodded. "I'm browsing their extranet in my free time too."

"And did you find something interesting?"

"Besides those disgusting movies?" she asked.

"Please, don't remind me. Wait, I thought they were filtered out."

"Yes, they were. It's more of an inside joke now. The Galaxy Sex Archive."

"Great, now I have to kill Andersen."

"Actually, Awad spread it."

"Then I kill them both," he said and burst out laughing. "That was so disturbing when he brought it on the main screen. I'm sure the whole bridge is scarred for life now."

"Though, it's interesting that the asari can mate with any species."

"The Research Division is fascinated with the idea. They're doing some research in their free time to find out whether something like that possible for humans or not."

"Crazy scientists."

They spoke for another two hours before the captain received a call from the bridge.

"It seems the Relay is clear," John said, standing up.

"Well then, I had a good time."

"Till next time, Caitlyin."

"See you, Shepard."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**

Thanks for reviews. As for the grammar, English is my third language, so please bear with me. Besides I found really stupid mistakes in chapters 1 and 2. I will correct them as soon as possible. I'll try to be more careful.

**Notice: **

**MR (MindReader): **A device, that works similar to the normal (primitive) MRI, visualizes human thoughts.

**Genomorph:** gene engineered artificial life. It had an extremely fast evolution and adaptation. At first genomorphs were used as pets. After they've gone mental, they were banned in the Empire.

**EMP** is powerful weapon, it has, however, disadvantages of leaving the ship helpless for a few seconds. More important, a defence against it is pretty easy to develop.

**Nobility: **

Imperial Family

1. Emperor/Empress

2. Grand Prince (sibling of 1, may not be given up)

3. Prince/Princess (son/daughter of 1 or 2, may not be given up)

4. Duke/Duchess – (cousin of 1, hereditary to the third generation, then count/countess, may not be granted, may not be given up)

Other nobility:

5. Count/Countess – (may be offspring of 4, hereditary, may be granted, may be given up)

6. Baron/Baroness – (hereditary or not hereditary, may be granted, may be given up)

7. Noble without a title (hereditary or not hereditary, may be granted and earned, may be given up)

Being a noble you have to serve the Imperial Family and state. A normal duration of the state service is prolonged to be unlimited. For example, count John Smith serves 20 years in military and wants to retire. The Empress/Emperor may accept or decline it. He can always give up his title and retire as a commoner. Normally the Empress/Emperor chooses to accept a retirement by reassigning to a new more desired job.

A noble has almost full rights.

A count has a bit more rights than a common noble.

Commoner has restricted rights.

To be able to apply for nobility one have to reach a specific position. For the military it's a navy lieutenant, squadron leader in the fighter corps, colonel in the infantry/special forces.

Commoner has to serve 10-20 years (350 years is the theoretical average life expectancy of a human. Average means one may reach an age of 500 and more. No one knows it for sure, however. The oldest human is 160 years old), depends on the way he/she chooses to serve. 15 years for military.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

Shepard didn't expect problems on the way to the Citadel. The ship was big enough to scare hell out of any pirate, even before the Destiny fires first missile. He was, however, proven wrong, when they reached Sakoyo system, where was a Relay to the Citadel Space.

"Captain, there are ships blocking the Relay. More vessels are coming out of the Relay we came through. That's not the Citadel Fleet. They're preparing an attack. They're closing in," the pilot said.

"How much time do we have?" the captain asked.

"Seventy seconds before they reach a fire distance."

John frowned. It didn't look like a pirate attack. There were sixteen ships larger than a frigate and Destiny would have trouble in direct confrontation, since he didn't want any casualties in the Fighter Division. What bothered him, pirates wouldn't have the resources to gain such strength. However, it was way too bold to be a part of the Council's game. Did some other power came into the play? He needed the information and that's why a simple battle was out of questions. It was risky and what's more important, he would use a weapon unique to the Empire. He sighed. It wasn't that important. He was sure other races would reengineer it within two or three days anyway. A chance to get information from these vessels was far more important.

"Prepare boarding teams," he commanded, "Activate the EMP defences; shut down all sensitive systems."

"Aye, captain," warfare officer said. "The ship will be ready for use of the EMP in twenty five seconds."

"Perform a silent launch of EMP mines."

"Mines are launched, captain," Andersen said and cursed, "Damn! They won't reach enemy ships in time. Four seconds too late."

"Proceed."

"Aye, captain," he said and fell silent for next thirty seconds. "They're shooting on us. Shields are holding up… EMP is ready, captain!"

"Activate!"

The next second everyone on the bridge became silent looking up to the main screen that rendered the situation. Soon it was clear the EMP worked, because enemy vessels didn't fire anymore and the everybody on the bridge became readings, which indicated that all systems on enemy ships went down. EMP wasn't working against the Imperial ships that well. Normally one used EMP when shields on enemy ships were already down and there were some hull damages, otherwise it was ineffective.

"Stop the ships using mass fields. Reactivate all systems. Launch boarding teams. Objective: information gathering. Cruisers have higher priority for a boarding. Lethal force on need, otherwise use stunners," he commanded and leaned back.

"Captain, I found an irregularity," a pilot said.

"What is it Williams?" Shepard asked.

"There was some disturbance coming from an asteroid. I believe there was some ship or unmanned station located on the asteroid. I may be wrong, but it was in the range of EMP."

"God," the captain sighed. "Send a shuttle to the asteroid to look for survivors, if there was someone alive at all. I bet the life support is dead after the EMP."

"Aye, captain."

He hated when innocent bystanders died. He never participated in real battles, only war game imitations. It wasn't a rare occurrence; he received many reports about innocent casualties. But those were virtual ones, this one could be his first, and it was a very uncomfortable thought. For next minutes he nervously waited for reports.

"Captain, they found a survivor," lieutenant Awad said. "An asari. It… she… damn it, the asari is an astrogeologist and was here for the corporation Alai'ta Minerals to examine asteroids. Her background was verified through the extranet. Nearly crisped in fire started by the EMP. She is okay though."

"Good, take her in, but she has to remain in the shuttle until we reach the Citadel. Let the SF-1 watch her all the time and isolate the bay. I don't want any surprises."

"Oh, and she demands a compensation for the lost equipment."

"Like we care," the captain rolled his eyes. "She should be happy to be alive. The Citadel will compensate it. Let the commander Berezin handle her, I'm sure he will appreciate it," he smiled.

"Aye, captain. He is most _grateful_," the lieutenant laughed.

'_At least one weight off the shoulders,_' the captain thought. He sighed with relief and waited for boarding teams. It could take some time.

"Captain, the second boarding team found an interesting recording on the cruiser," the comm. Lieutenant said a hour later.

"Let me hear it," John said.

After he received it, Shepard stated a private playback.

"_Vasir." _It said a rough male voice.

"_I have a good job for you," a female said._

"_Not interested."_

"_How about a million credits?"_

"_A million you say?" _he asked sounding interested.

"_Yes, I will transfer two hundred thousand now, and the rest after the job is done."_

"_What should be done?"_

"_There will be a ship in the Sakoyo system. A dreadnought of a new race. They're full of themselves, because of the ship's size. It's scrap in the reality, but they won't listen. I want you to make them more compliant. If you take the job I will provide you with some decommissioned but still good turian vessels, which you can keep after the mission. There will be four cruisers and six frigates."_

"_You were disappointing me of late, Vasir, but this is very, very good…" he said. "I take the job."_

"_You have to move out immediately," she said satisfied, "Take the ships, bring some of yours and go to the Sakoyo. Block the Relay to the Citadel Space. Don't worry for patrols; they will be dealing with something else. I sent you coordinates and access codes for turian vessels."_

"_May we destroy the dreadnought?"_

"_No, but don't hold back. Beat them into submission and leave."_

"_I'd rather blow them up, but it's your money. I'm moving out."_

He grinned madly after he heard the conversation, which obviously wasn't meant to fall into his hands. The attack was organized by the Citadel Council to test capabilities of the ship. 'They wouldn't hope to beat us into submission,' he thought. It was clear to him that these mercenaries were meant to be slaughtered and it was obviously the asari they brought on the board of the Destiny was probably an observer and not an innocent bystander. She made a big mistake assuming humans would destroy enemy ships.

"I need a voice sample of the asari we picked up," he said. "Compare it with the female voice from the recording."

"A moment, captain," the comm. Lieutenant said. "What the…? They're matching, captain."

"I thought so. Provide the SF-1 a backup, let them knock the asari out and transfer her into a cage. We have a first biotic prisoner."

"Aye, aye, captain."

The rest of ships proved to be useless. The captain frowned when the final report mentioned two casualties. It was the first time he actually lost people under his command and he hated the feeling, even if he didn't know these two soldiers, who died because of the Citadel Council. It was so easy to look at them as numbers: out of 3121 crewmen there were 3119 left. But they weren't just numbers. It was a man, forty four years old, with a wife and three children left on Earth. And it was a twenty three years old girl; her husband, a lieutenant, here on the Destiny, will have to cremate her body. There were at least five people, who lost their precious people to aliens now. Shepard took a deep breath to calm down, suppress emotions and restrain his need for a revenge. '_Emotions are dangerous for the mission,_' he whispered. He knew now, the Citadel Council couldn't be trusted. One of the objectives was completed, the results were, however, undesirable. At least they didn't try to destroy us.

"Destroy everything, including the asteroid, where we found the asari," he commanded. "I don't want any evidences left behind. Then proceed to the Citadel."

"Aye, captain," Andersen said.

"Take over the bridge. I want to speak with the asari."

* * *

><p>Tela was a very experienced diversion specialist. Before she became a Spectre about hundred years ago, she served for asari military as a commando. Even then Tela was one of the most powerful biotics of her race. And asari were most powerful biotics. During next decades her abilities only grew more powerful. But that wasn't what made her valuable agent for the Citadel. Her connections were her strength. She had contacts in the mercenary organizations, batarian slaver gangs. She knew good and reliable information brokers. The Spectre knew exactly which organization she could use for an attack on the dreadnought.<p>

The Jurrex Alliance under the leadership of krogan battlemaster Jurrex. The group was becoming an annoyance lately, outliving the usefulness and she planned to get rid of them soon. Now she had a good opportunity. The Alliance was previously two separate gangs. The krogan mercenary organization, which used vorcha and varrens like the Blood Pack, was the first one. The second one was a batarian pirate and slavery gang. About ten years ago they combined their forces and would normally be wiped out on the Council's order, but Spectre Vasir found them useful, since they did dirty work for her. However, they became too arrogant and so they would die.

"Land on that moon," she said to her partner.

"It's too far," she heard turian's voice.

"That's the point. You're the backup."

"Understood."

Vasir landed her ship on an asteroid. Then the Spectre switched her ship into the reconnaissance mode and sighed. As soon as she received a message from Jurrex stating that everything was ready, she sent informed the Council to unblock the Relay. Twenty minutes later the Destiny arrived to the system. Tela was really interested how humans would react and was surprised by seemingly lack of any action. She was wide-eyed when mercenaries started to fire on the Destiny, which was still silent. Then something happened.

"What the vorcha…?" she exclaimed.

She couldn't understand what happened, but every system on her vessel went completely down. More important a shorting started fire. She was dressed in full-body suit, so she didn't depend on life support systems, but as soon as she stepped up to the door, the asari understood that she couldn't leave the cockpit. The door was sealed. '_Whoever designed the ship, should burn,_' the Spectre growled. The chill went down her back as she thought about being burned alive. Vasir hoped her partner was more lucky and would bring the information to the Council. She sighed and took a pistol in her hand. She decided to die fast by her own hand; the fire was nearing her and then to her relief she heard that someone was outside of her ship breaking in. She let out a sigh of relief and hidden her weapon. She realized that rescue party was mostly likely from the human vessel and smiled. Maybe she would bring more information than she ever hoped.

Soon the door was opened and the fire was extinguished due to a lack of oxygen. Her magnetic boots did the job and held her on the place while the air was sucked out within a moment. She saw humans. '_Are they idiots... What would they do if I didn't have a suit?_'

"Are you alright?" one of them asked the asari.

"Mostly," she answered.

"Good, let's get out of here," the human said.

She followed them to the shuttle. There were five humans and she considered for a moment to take them down and steal the shuttle to reach the Citadel. She was, however, sure the Destiny would likely destroy the shuttle. Moreover she wanted to risk and try to get more information infiltrating the dreadnought.

"Who are you and what were you doing on the asteroid?" a human asked.

"I'm Tela Le'shani, an astrogeologist. I'm here on the mission for the Alai'ta Minerals. I was examining asteroids when you did that to my ship."

"We're sorry, we were, however, merely defending from pirates."

"I demand a compensation for the equipment I lost," she bluffed.

"The captain will decide whether you will be compensated or not."

"Whatever. What species are you, by the way?"

"We're humans."

"Never heard of humans."

"No one heard of us. We're currently negotiating with the Council. When you get to the Citadel, I'm sure you will hear of us."

"What did you do to my ship?"

"Nothing you should care about."

"That was very kind of you."

"I'm here not to be kind. It's not a civil ship."

"I see."

She sat in the silence for next minutes until they reached the Destiny. She moved to get out of shuttle, but was stopped by the human with some weapon in his hands.

"You will stay in the shuttle until we reach the Citadel," he said.

"What? Why should I stay here?"

"It's not a matter for discussions. You're staying here or you will be spaced out."

"Great. Fine, I'm staying here," she said angrily and whispered for him to hear, "Asshole."

Her plan didn't work, but the main objective was completed. She had the information and she would be ironically transported to the Citadel by humans. However, she had one more idea to do more than she already did. The Spectre carefully reached for a miniature omni-tool and hacked into the shuttle's computer. '_That was easy,_' she thought. She took a look at humans and smiled. They didn't see her working with the omni-tool. She understood soon that the shuttle was useless. There were no beneficial information. And the hull of the shuttle isolated her from the main ship, so that the omni-tool couldn't reach computers of the Destiny.

Suddenly the door of the shuttle opened, and she saw more humans with weapons. Her intuition told her that something went terribly wrong and these humans weren't here to speak. Varis prepared to defend herself, the air around her saturated with violet color indicating, that she used her biotic powers.

"Don't bother, you won't get away," one human said. "We have our own biotics. And there is two dozens operatives from special forces here. We're sure that we can handle one biotic, even if you're powerful one."

"What's the meaning of this? I thought you will take me to the Citadel," she said.

"Captain's orders. Please, don't resist. Nobody here wants to hurt you."

For a moment she considered her options. She knew that they somehow discovered her true identity and that meant her chances were very grim. Better die in battle than be tortured to death. The flare around her increased the intensity and the Spectre was about to use her powers, when she felt a piercing pain in her leg and her vision became blurry.

"How… shields…" she managed to say, trying to understand, how the tranquilizer could get through the kinetic shield. '_Maybe…_' Before she could end the thought she lost consciousness.

When she woke up, Tela unconsciously reached for her biotics and was astonished to find that she felt absolutely nothing. The asari panicked. These powers were part of her race, how could they rob her of her biotics? But worse yet she was pinned down to the wall. She couldn't move a limb. Even her head was locked.

"Ah, you're awake," she heard a voice and looked up to a human. He was tall with short black fur on his head. His brown filled with anger eyes bored into her own and she felt a shiver.

"What did you do to me, fur-head?" she asked.

"If you're speaking about your biotics, it's a neural inhibitor. As soon as you get out of the cage you will get your powers back. Assuming you will ever get out of the cage. By the way, that small suicide device inside of your head is deactivated. By the way, this isn't fur, it's hair."

"Don't care. How was I tranquilized? I had a kinetic shield," the Spectre decided to ask, cursing inwardly that she lost her last ticket out of a torture. She was sure the Council would activate it as soon as it would be clear she was a prisoner.

"Sadly, you're not the one to ask questions here, Tela, or whatever your real name is."

"You can do whatever you want, you won't get any answers from me."

"The attack you organized cost two soldiers their lives. One was a twenty three years old girl, who had the whole life ahead."

"What a pity!" she said with a smile.

"I don't really blame you, for you merely did your job. It's the Council's fault. Yes, I know the Council organized it," he paused. "Yet I can't take my revenge on the Council and that makes your situation worse. Normally we don't torture prisoners. You, however, are a spy and as such have no rights in eyes of the Empire. You will be tortured until you spill everything you know and let me tell you, no one can endure pain. Everyone has a breakpoint. And we will break you. Even if it's not the pain, we can always use drugs. An eye for an eye, spy. You have a better option though. You tell us everything we want to know, and you won't be tortured. Think it over; you have twenty hours before we begin."

* * *

><p>The Destiny came to the Serpent Nebula through the Relay and was approaching the Citadel. The Council, however was preoccupied receiving a report from an agent who worked with a Spectre, whom they charged with the mission to get information about the Destiny. The loss of the Tela was a hard blow, but fortunately she had done the job.<p>

"…As you see they took some fire from mercs. Only nine seconds, but I believe no dreadnought aside of the Destiny Ascension can take so much damage without losing shields," the agent reported. "Then the sensors detected a powerful electromagnetic pulse, which was somehow reinforced with a shield disrupting radiation. I was far enough from the epicentre and my systems weren't damaged. The Spectre Vasir was, however, in the range. Merc vessels stopped the fire and based on the readings all systems went offline. Ships were boarded and then destroyed. Tela Vasir was probably captured, since my scanners detected a shuttle, which landed on the asteroid a minute after the Destiny used the electromagnetic pulse."

"Thank you for the report, agent," the turian councillor said and broke the connection.

"Disturbing it is," the salarian said. "I'll send the data from agent's sensors on the electromagnetic pulse to our research centers to reengineer it and find a defence. The weapon could practically wipe out entire Citadel Fleet before we would fire a single shot."

"Do it," the asari nodded, "Besides I received a message that a possible solution to their small ships was found. The use of laser turrets is proposed to destroy the ships. It's however only possible if they don't have something different from kinetic barriers, otherwise only answer would be a construction of equal fleets of small vessels. The Destiny itself equipped with shields impenetrable to a laser."

"So, we might need to develop new type of vessels to oppose them," the turian said. "I suggest we start the development right away."

"Yes, " Tevos said. "We can't afford to lose time." She paused. "A connection with the Destiny is established. I suggest we lead the negotiations the way we discussed before. Are we ready to start?" Other councillors nodded and she turned the transmission from the Destiny on.

"Councillors," the captain said, "As I see, you have problems with piracy."

The asari could see the anger emanating from the human. One more detail she noticed is the absence of a woman, who was there with the captain last time.

"We're sorry for inconvenience. We hope you found a way back to the Citadel without difficulties."

"There were _pirates _who decided to try our defences, but we dealt with them. And that's the fate of everyone who dares to raise a weapon on a citizen of the Empire, _councillors_. But let us end pleasantries and move on with the negotiations."

Tevos managed to hold back a flinch, but just barely. '_He knows we organized it,_' she thought.

"The first issue is the entrance of the Solar Empire into the Citadel Space," she started.

"I see you misunderstood the entire reason for these negotiations," the captain said. "We won't join Citadel Space, the Empire will never accept an external rule. The reason I'm here is to elaborate a treaty, which will decide how exactly the relations between our states will look like."

"We don't have any relations with races who do not accept rule of the Council," the turian said.

"It would be your loss, since our ships would receive an order to shoot on sight at every vessel of Citadel races. It would provoke a war. A war you surely don't want, because you would fight an enemy who is superior to you technologically and military."

Tevos glanced at the salarian. The human was good, neither could tell if he was bluffing or stating the fact. She was, however, sure the captain's words were a half-truth. No race could be stronger than an alliance of many. Even if the Empire had a technological and military advantage, the Citadel would lose battles, but win the war. The problem was, such a war would have devastating consequences for both sides and a winner would be a loser at the same time. It would be a worst conflict in the history of the Council. On the other hand an ally, which is technologically more advanced, could bring the entire galaxy on the whole new level.

"Are you treating us?" councillor Dolei to win some time.

"No, I'm merely stating the policy of the Empire. It's just the logic and the law. Either we are at peace, or we are at war. If we don't have a peace treaty, then it's logically the Empire will consider you an enemy."

"Would the Empire accept the rule of the Council if we grant your state a place on the Council?" Tevos asked and human took a long pause. She smiled inwardly, as she could tell he didn't expect the offer.

"It is very generous offer I didn't expect," he said at last. "Unfortunately, I can't accept it. As I already said, our state can't accept the external rule. The position of supreme ruler is the highest government body and can't be undermined, since it would destabilize our society and lead to unforeseeable consequences. It's not a question of being stubborn, it's just unacceptable and impossible for our race. We can live in peace with you, have various treaties and contracts, provide succour and intelligence data, trade technologies and resources. We can accept your laws, when we are in your space and you have to accept ours when you're in the Empire. There is however no way you can have a say in what we can and what we can't do in our own space. The supreme ruler, currently Empress Victoria has the ultimate rule over the Empire."

Tevos was confused by his words. Even if she was right he wouldn't accept a place on the Council, his words came unexpected. That meant they totally misunderstood the humans and their intentions. They seemed to be aggressive and hostile at first, but now...

"We can accept it," the asari said and the human paused for a second time.

"Then we have to discuss the demands, both sides surely have," the human continued. The asari could see he was relieved and at the same time surprised, even if he was very good at controlling his emotions.

"I believe we have to start with conventions," the asari councillor said.

"I'm aware of your conventions on Mass Destruction weapons..." The negotiations continued productively.

"...come to the issue of artificial intelligence," Shepard said. "The Empire would consider your lenient laws towards the AI research a threat. We found out there are a few corporations who received a licence to research AI under supervision of the Council. It's one of our demands, that you completely prohibit any research on the AI."

"We understand dangers of the AI," the turian said, "and approve it in research purposes only."

"That doesn't mean that researchers can't lose a control over the AI they research."

"Every research is strictly controlled and there is no way something can go wrong."

"I'm merely stating the fact. The Empire considers every AI a threat. If you approve an AI research you become a threat too."

"Did you have some problems with an AI in your history?" the asari asked.

"No, the Imperial Family passed a bill on AI before we were even able to create one."

"Does that mean the Empire will treat the quarians as enemies?" the salarian asked.

"No, we don't have any problems with the quarians. Everyone can make mistakes." He paused.

"Why did you meet with the Migrant Fleet then?"

"It's Empire's own business. The Migrant Fleet doesn't fall under authority of the Citadel."

"Current dislocation of the Migrant Fleet is within the Attican Traverse, and so falls partly under our authority," argued the turian.

"Even so, I don't understand, how our relations with the quarians did become your business."

"Let's conclude the round, since the AI discussion promises to be long and difficult," Tevos said before the matter went out of hand.

"I agree," the human said. "We did discuss enough for today. I'm glad this discussion was more productive than the first one."

"We agree," the asari said. "I propose we continue tomorrow at 10 g.s.t."

As the connection was closed, councillors exchanged glances and remained silent for a few minutes. Tevos was relieved this round of the negations went so smooth. It was, however, surprisingly slow. All they discussed were the basic conventions. Everything seemed to be perfect until they wanted to discuss inactive primary Relays, with an unknown destination. The Council wanted the Empire to accept the regulations, and the human was very reluctant to agree on it. On the other hand there was a problem with the AI. Here the situation seemed to be opposite.

"It's clear he won't agree on Relays if we don't offer him something in return," she said.

"You mean the AI research," the turian commented.

"Yes."

"We won't lose much if we agree to toughen up the AI laws," Dolei said. "There are corporation, which would object, but it's not a business with a high income."

"The problem I expect, these corporation may go underground and we would lose control over their researches. "

"We need to discuss the AI again," Dolei nodded. "What's about Spectre Vasir? She was a Spectre for nearly a hundred years and knows way too much secrets to feel comfortable with her being on their ship."

"She installed an suicide device to the head and requested a destruction if she would be taken prisoner," Berenis said, "The device is, however, unreachable. Whether she is dead or humans found and deactivated it is unknown."

"Captain Shepard didn't mention her," the asari said, "But I assume he knows the truth behind the _pirate_ attack. That means, he chooses to ignore it in favour of the negotiations. If we mention her, we officially confess to the attack. An rescue mission is out of questions. There is no way a team could infiltrate on board of the Destiny. Besides, it would put the negations at risk."

"Perhaps we can agree on some treaty to handle prisoners," the turian suggested.

"That might be a good idea, the Spectre might be, however, be already dead. Moreover he might lie, that she is dead," Dolei said.

"Yes, but he would have to go against a treaty, consequently if we find any evidences, we would become some advantages."

"Let's prepare a treaty," the asari concluded.

* * *

><p>"That... went well, captain," Andersen said.<p>

"Yes, didn't expect it," he sighed. "I'm awaiting a report from the Research Division on current stand of the negations until 6 g.s.t. so I would have time to prepare for the next round. Call Berezin to take over the bridge. Lieutenant Andersen is temporary commanding officer on the bridge."

"Aye, aye, captain."

Shepard stood up and left the bridge. John heard a laugh from the officer's mess, but was too exhausted to join them. Instead he took a lift to his quarters and decided to sleep for a few hours. The captain woke up around 2 g.s.t., so he had eight Citadel hours to enjoy some freedom and prepare for the next round. The better treaty he would get, the better, since neither the captain nor the RD expected the Council to be this accepting, assuming they could be trusted, which they weren't. Either way previously proposed mock treaty became real and the captain knew that he should give his best. He was, however, a bit afraid, if he would do too good, the Empress would assign him as an Ambassador. Unfortunately, that was very likely. He liked diplomacy, but would be glad to stay in the Navy. He wouldn't, however, undermine the negotiations out of the fear to become an Ambassador. The idea was laughable.

After a hour at the training hall, he went to the mess, where he surprisingly met his newly acquired friend in company of lieutenant Muti Awad. He took his meal and sat with them.

"Awad, Caitlyn," he greeted.

"You know each other?" the lieutenant asked.

"Yes, we met each other in the Greenhouse," she explained.

"I hope your injury is healed up," John said.

"Of course," Caitlyn answered, "There isn't however much to do."

"Hopefully, it will stay this way."

"Don't be so optimistic, captain," lieutenant said.

"Ah, I completely forgot, Awad," the captain grinned. "I promised Miss McLerie... to kill you for the Sex Archive joke."

"But it was hilarious!" Muti protested. "Everyone call it the Sextranet now."

"God, it keeps evolving like a genomorph."

"Please, don't mention these bloody things. They were even more disgusting than the Sextranet," Caillyn complained.

"Genomorphs were kind of cute at first," Awad noted.

"Yeah, before they had gone all frenzy and begun to slaughter everyone on their path," the captain said.

"But you should look at the bright side of it. We have a cure to practically every genetic disease thanks to these creatures."

"Oh well, I hope the Empress won't execute me for my return with the crew full of perverts because of the Sextranet," the captain sighed.

"Don't worry, captain, the majority finds it ridiculous," Awad said. "Well, aside the asari. They seem to be human enough."

"Except the horns," Caitlyn snorted.

"And the skin," the captain added.

"And the lifespan," Caitlyn continued. "And everything else. Besides, you're a noble. You can't be executed."

"Don't be jealous, Caitlyn," John smiled.

"Why should I?" she grinned, "Even if I reach the squadron leader rank I won't apply for nobility. At least I have a freedom and don't have to do a life-long state duty."

"It's a downside of being a noble, but it's not that bad. We still have some advantages."

"Really? I see only disadvantages, Shepard."

"What about the right to own a battleship?"

"Do you own one?" she asked.

"Didn't feel the need yet."

"I'm sure you won't ever feel the need."

"Alright," growled Shepard, "What about the right to own a land?"

"Don't need it. There are enough state lands to lease."

"It's not the same!" Shepard exclaimed. "Public lands are noisy overcrowded areas with ugly ridiculous high skyscrapers!"

"I happen to like ugly skyscrapers. It's better than ancient ruins you call a 'family residence'."

"My family manor isn't an ancient one. It's only hundred fifty years old."

"See?" she turned to Awad. "And he tries to tell me it isn't ancient." The lieutenant looked amused but remained silent.

"You're just as stubborn as my sister." John sighed.

"By the way," she said, "I found something interesting. It wasn't on the public report and I thought you might be interested if the RD somehow managed to overlook it. Take a look," she activated a holo-projector, "It's the Omega system and this Relay doesn't appear on the map we have."

The captain froze and ceased to breathe for some time. He had only one explanation. The Relay was built by the Reapers after the fall of the Ancients. '_How the hell did the RD miss it?_' he thought.

"What's more important no one knows where does it lead aside the rumours some species, they call the Collectors, appear to use it," she continued. "No other ship ever returned from there. Hey, captain, is everything okay?"

"Yes," he said absently, "Don't tell anyone about the Relay yet. Understood?" he commanded.

"Yes, captain," they answered seriously.

He stood up, quickly left the mess and went to his private quarters, where he immediately opened a communication channel to lieutenant-commander Hoffmann. For first time he was really furious.

"Captain," Janina saluted.

"Explain, how did your division miss something this important? Why do I have to hear it from a fighter pilot of all people?" he said sternly, sending information about the Omega 4 Relay. She paled as she saw the data.

"I have no explanation, captain," she said.

"I want information on it and these Collectors as soon as possible. If your division misses something like that once more, I won't be this forgiving, lieutenant-commander."

"I understand, captain. There won't be another mistake."

"Good. I hope I won't have to demote you."

He closed the connection and sighed calming himself. '_If the Relay was constructed by the Reapers so that no one could go through it, than these Collectors most likely spy for the Reapers. If so, they gather information about current civilization. If they find out we have weapons that can take them out, the Reapers will return very soon. That means we have to keep secrets; probably we aren't ready to face them yet._'

He left the quarters and went to the prison area. It was empty, but there was one cell for biotics, which was called a cage.

"Captain," the man to the left saluted.

"Sergeant, did she say something?"

"Unfortunately, no. Nothing useful at least."

Shepard nodded, entered the cage, and looked up to the asari, while she was asleep. He touched her arm to wake her up and was surprised at the feeling asari skin on his fingers. It was very different from the human skin.

"Twenty hours are up," he said, when her eyes snapped open.

"Give up. You won't be able to make me talk," she said.

"You don't know humans."

"Go watch a krogan porn."

"Thank you, it was disgusting enough to look at an asari with a krogan."

"I see. You're against interspecies relationship, aren't you?"

"That's not what I'm here to speak about," he said fighting an urge to slap himself, "Why are you so loyal to the Council?"

"Probably, because the Council maintenances peace and stability in the galaxy. It's hard for a fur-head to comprehend, isn't it?"

"Sure, we're dumb, but your reasoning is just flawless!" he said sarcastically. "How is the attack on an ambassador of a new race a maintenance of peace?"

"Sometimes one need a violence to do it, fur-head."

"I'm sure you're proud of the Council for they committed genocide on the rachni and practically the krogan."

"These were mistakes and there was no choice," the asari snorted.

"Okay, let's continue. The quarians. The Council could help them, but no, they left the entire race to slowly rot on their ships."

"They created the geth and surely deserved the fate."

"You're hypocrite," John sighed. "What's worse, to create the geth or to destroy two sentient races?"

When she didn't answer he turned around, left the room and looked at the Sergeant.

"Gilard, try the MR first," Shepard said.

"We're not sure it will work on asari," Gilard noted.

"I don't want to torture her, while we have other options."

"You're too soft with her, captain."

"Yes, but she is kind of... woman."

"Alien," Gilard protested.

"Sergeant, take a look at her and say she is a man or an it."

"You've got me here, captain," he laughed. "But either way, two people died because of her."

"Because of the Council. She did it on Council's orders. Start the MR, if nothing comes out of it, contact me, I'll decide on what to do with her."

"Aye, captain."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes:  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Let me rip and kill somebody! :D It's so stupid, couldn't log in for the whole week! What's up with fanfiction?<p>

* * *

><p><span>Notice 0:<span> **There is a beautiful map of the AU Galaxy in my profile. Yeah, I'm modest :D  
><strong>

Notice 1: There will be tons of political shit-storms in this story.

Notice 2: I don't like Geth and don't really understand people who speak of tolerance towards the synthetics. No one wants a toaster with a free will; I bet you wouldn't want your computer to act independently either. So, don't be fast to judge, since you would most likely do the same thing. Quarians were right trying to disable them, because they're threat.

Notice 3: _Empire isn't perfect at all. It has a LOT problems._

* * *

><p><span>More 'CODEX' entries:<span>

**Title - Official manner of address**

Imperial Family

1. Emperor/Empress - Her/His (Imperial) Majesty

2. Grand Prince - Her/His (Imperial) Highness

3. Prince/Princess - Her/His (Imperial) Highness

4. Duke/Duchess - Her/His (Imperial) Highness

Other nobility:

5. Count/Countess - His/Her Illustriousness.

6. Baron/Baroness - His/Her Lordship

7. Noble without a title - His/Her Noblessness

* * *

><p><strong>Ranks <strong>

1. Admiral/Commodore - His/Her Excellency

2. Captain, Commander, Lieutenant-commander - Her/His Highly Born

3. Lieutenant, Sub-lieutenant, Ensign - Her/His Wellborn

* * *

><p>Other citizens - Mr.Mrs./Miss/...

A title has higher priority than a rank, so a count who is an admiral should be addressed as His Illustriousness. It's, however, **not** rude to address using a rank, if you either aren't aware of the title or want to focus on the rank. The second is only acceptable if you outranks the conversation partner though.

This manner of address is used on official occasions and in letters only. Normally in the military one uses ranks. Captain Smith, for example. In everyday life no one cares for ranks and titles if one doesn't speak to a member of the Imperial Family. There are, however, a few bigots.

Furthermore there is local non-Imperial nobility in U.K. (yes, there is Her Royal Majesty the Queen or His Royal Majesty the King), Spain, Portugal, Austria (it's still monarchic in this AU)... Members of the Imperial Family gladly marry princes/princesses from these states.

* * *

><p><strong>Government<strong>

Emperor/Empress - (Imperial Family) - Senate - Senator - Region Council - State - Local government - …

_The Imperial Family_ is very influential and important. There is _Inner Council_ in the Imperial Family; it consists of Emperor/Empress, (Grand) Princes, (Grand) Princesses, Dukes, Duchesses and a few influential nobles. Whether Empress Victoria is influential or not will stay unknown until the second part of the story. There are still 4-5 chapter for the first part on the way.

* * *

><p><strong>Imperial Naval Academy<strong>

It's like a full year boarding school for those who finished school at the age 14-17. Cadets return home only for 4 weeks a year and don't really have a private life.

* * *

><p><strong>Technologies<strong>

The Solar Empire has very extensive knowledge in genetics gained through the experiments on genomorphs! While the Alliance wastes money on computer automatization, VI and AI, the Empire focuses on simple computational powers and biology using it as an alternative to 'smart' computers.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

The second round of the negations was difficult. After two hours of discussion they could only agree on the AI, but there still were many subjects on the list.

"Excellent," the asari councillor said. "Concluding the discussion, we agree on strengthening laws on AI research. Requirements we agreed on include: total isolation of the AI-object, absence of network access and any connected to the AI-object weapons and devices able to produce a significant movement, constant observance of the AI-object through both the Citadel Security and the Imperial Security. Furthermore we agree to lower import and export taxes for citizens of the Empire by ten percents relative to the standard rate for period of five galactic standard years. In return the Solar Empire agrees to not activate primary Relays leading to unknown locations for the same period of time. Further agreement will be considered before the last one becomes obsolete."

"Good," Shepard sighed, "Now, we can move on at last."

Shepard considered this agreement a victory, because he gained much more than he lost. He wasn't, however, sure if the Empress would agree with him on primary Relays. He hoped, she would see the reason. Ten percent taxes reduction would help the economy of the Empire immensely. Much more than Relays to the new systems Empire can't colonize yet.

"The next issue we would like to discuss is the handling of crime offenders and prisoners," the turian councillor said.

The moment the turian spoke of prisoners, Shepard understood the Council knew their agent was on the Destiny, and that meant he missed someone in that system; there was another observer. Consequently the Council knew about the EMP. '_They're good_,' he thought.

"Do you plan to take our citizens as prisoners?" John asked raising an eyebrow.

"No, but you sure can imagine situation, that would implicate taking prisoners."

"Let's take a pause for an hour. I need some rest before we continue. Your suggestion promises to be a difficult issue," Shepard said.

"We agree," the turian said, nodded and closed the connection.

"Andersen, take over the bridge," the captain said and left the bridge.

He took a lift to the prison area and went directly to the side room of the cage, which was filled with various devices now. In the room were three people. One of them was Sergant Gilard, who was smiling like a kid who got a Christmas gift. It was obvious he got some results.

"I see you're happy, Sergant," the captain said.

"Yes, the MR works better then we hoped. We discovered that the asari nervous system fits much better than a human one for memory visualizing. Their brain handles memories much more efficient than ours, so, we just connected the MR and after an hour of calibrations received a good result. Nothing like torn pieces one receives from humans. Her memories are like movies. It's damn awesome, captain! But the things we saw... I must note she is really dangerous. Our biotics are nothing compared to her. She almost can fly for the God's sake! Take a look at it," the Sergeant said and brought a memory on screen.

"Oh, holy...! Did she just teleport?" exclaimed the captain as she saw her in action.

"And just look at the way she moves here. She flies!"

Shepard knew the limits of human biotics and they were no way near the abilities of the asari. To jump from the ten-storey building slowly descending to the ground or to cover a distance of a few dozen meter in a matter of a second was clearly beyond the abilities of any human biotic.

"SF-1 has got lucky, when they managed to stun her without casualties," he said.

"Yeah… Well, she isn't aware of the MR. We're just asking her questions, she laughs and believes we're barmy to consider that a torture, and we're happy to pretend to be mental fur-heads," Sergant laughed.

"How much time do you need?"

"At least fifteen hours, but no more than thirty. Her nervous system is quite… fast."

"Very well. Try to get the maximum of her."

"Understood, captain."

John turned to leave, but stopped, when he got an idea of what he could do with the asari.

"Does she have any implants?" he asked

"Yes," Gilard replied, "Something we identified as biotic amplifiers and a small prosthetic piece of a bone in her right leg."

"A change in plans," the captain said. "You have fifteen hours to get every important piece of information out of her. Then sedate her and transfer to the medical station. I want them to implant a transmitter into her leg, disguise it as a part of the prosthesis. The transmitter has to activate itself only on need, so that no scanners would detect it. Furthermore stimulate her nervous system with a gene therapy to develop a connection from her eyes and ears to the transmitter. Make sure medics don't touch the wound on her neck from the neural inhibitor, but they have to leave no evidences of surgical procedure on her leg."

"That's ingenious!" the Sergeant exclaimed.

"Let the medical station be ready. Everything on the asari is Level 6 classified and network restricted from now on."

"Aye, captain."

He left the prison and headed to the mess. After having a dinner he returned to the bridge and reopened the connection to the Council.

"Let's continue," he said and started a next phase of the negotiations.

"...So we agree that offenders charged with major offences are to be not eligible for extradition. The matter is to be handled on the territory where the crime is committed. An accused has to be provided with defenders from both sides. The Citadel and the Empire. Consequently both sides must be informed of an imputation of a crime," Shepard concluded after six hour long discussion. He prolonged it as much as he could.

"Yes," the asari councillor nodded.

"Then under the agreement I must inform you, that we have a prisoner who is charged with espionage. The accused is charged with organizing a pirate attack on the Destiny to assess the potential of the vessel. As such it is a major crime against the Empire. The Imperial Law Codex implies a death penalty and we have conclusive evidences against the offender. On the gesture of goodwill and forgiveness I, however, agree to exculpate the subject as long as the offender receives an appropriate punishment and will be banned from the Empire. Subject's further law violation against the Empire will be punished with immediate execution out of court. The transfer will be carried out in twenty hours."

"What is the name of the prisoner?" the salarian councillor asked.

"Unknown," he answered sharply. "She is an asari. Let's end the round of the negations."

"We will continue tomorrow at 10 g.s.t."

"Agreed."

The captain sighed, when the connection was closed. It seemed the negations would take forever. He would like to have Mitsuharu at his side to speak with her and consult on his decisions. He trusted her and she could always could tell him, when he was wrong. The decision on the asari was very controversy, but John believed he made a right choice to hand her over. It would give him an upper hand in the negations and the Empire would get a spy in the Citadel. Either way the asari would be useless; for all her memories would be stored in the database. Both the MR and the gene manipulation were considered unethical in the Empire. The asari was, however, a spy and no one would blame him for the use of MR or other means. Besides she had almost no new information for the Council, since the Council already knew about the EMP. The only thing she would report is their crazy techniques of interrogation and the cage. These things could hardly considered secrets. In the light of revelation of existence of the collectors, the Empire needed other races to be strong. The future of the Empire, however, comes first.

* * *

><p>Admiral Zeem'Xel vas Neema wasn't as fast to trust the Solar Empire as many other quarians. Of course they couldn't decline the offer, but he decided to stay wary of the humans. Captain Shepard and Commander Mitsuharu seemed to be genuine, but he couldn't afford to be believe them. Mitsuharu convinced the Conclave to prepare fifteen starships with five thousand quarians, which would take a look at the Empire and begin to colonize the planet. Admiral could see the human was happy with the decision; sure, she couldn't hope for more.<p>

"So, the Conclave decided to risk thousands of lives by trusting these humans."

Zeem'Xel snapped from his thoughts and looked at Tanak'Lemar who took a word. Xel knew that his fellow admiral didn't trust aliens and obviously was against entering the Empire. And he was probably supported by Stera'Vael vas Tesleya who was extremely wary of any outsiders. Fortunately other two admirals were more willingly to discuss the situation.

"I agree, we should overrule the Conclave on this decision. It could lead to the end of our race," admiral Vael said.

"Overrule what?" Xel asked. "Their acceptance of only hope for us?"

"Hope? Nothing comes without price when dealing with outsiders," Lemar objected.

Xel sighed. Both Lemar and Vael had worst possible experiences during their Pilgrimage. Stera lived for eight years as a slave for batarians, while Tanak for asari on Illium even if they didn't call it slavery. Their distrust was understandable, but he couldn't allow them to be guided by their past.

"That's why the Migrant Fleet isn't heading towards the Solar Empire," Tana'Sola said. "It's our only hope. The Citadel would never allow us colonize a suitable planet and we would endanger ourselves by doing so without their approval. The Empire gave us a chance for a new start and reclaiming our homeworld. I do agree, we have to be careful, but we have to give them a chance to prove themselves."

"A chance to prove themselves? At what cost? Endangering five thousand quarians?"

"We endangering thousands quarians every day we send them on the Pilgrimage," Xel said. "How many young quarians don't return from it? How many of us return traumatized from the Pilgrimage?"

"I agree with admiral Zeem'Xel," admiral Arden'Keraz decided to take part on the discussion. "The risk they will take, won't be any more dangerous than the Pilgrimage, but the Empire promises us much more than the rest of the Galaxy."

"But what if the humans deceive our observers? What if they bring false data from the mission to the Empire?"

"And what if the Geth decide to attack the Fleet?" admiral Xel parried.

"They didn't bother for hundreds years," Vael argued.

"And why do you think they will keep to ignore us? What are you hopping for? Survive as the Migrant Fleet? You should know, that it's a matter of time we simply die out if we don't find a solution. These ships won't hold more than two hundred years. Even now there are far too many vessels that aren't better than a scrap metal. Every year we have less living space."

"Still I don't trust them," Tanak'Lemar said.

"We don't have a choice. We have three other options: find a suitable planet in unknown regions, get the Citadel to approve colonization in the Citadel Space or Attican Traverse, since Terminus Systems are far too dangerous, or keep living as the Migrant Fleet. Do any of you believe in success of these three?"

"Right," Stera'Vael sighed defeated, "You're right, Zeem, the Empire is the best choice, but we need our best people following humans; we have to be sure it's safe to lead the Fleet to the Empire."

"Agree," Tanak said reluctantly.

Admiral Zeem'Xen was relieved. Even though they only needed three votes of five, it was much better to have a backup of all admirals. The Conclave entrusted the Admiralty Board to select ships and crew for the mission to the Empire and they needed to choose carefully.

Soon he left the meeting and headed to the shuttle. On the way he looked at the ship's walls and cringed at thought the quarians could live on these ships for next hundred years. Even now the ship wasn't in the condition to be part of the Fleet. He was always one of the few, who wanted to do something besides living on ships, but the majority didn't want to take a risk. That changed now, when they had help of the Empire. He went on the shuttle and directed it towards the Neema. His ship was in better condition, but the admiral knew, it had its limits too.

But colonization wasn't going to solve all the problems quarians had. They would need years of genetic research to make possible a life without suits again. Hopefully the Empire would help them, they seemed to be advanced in this area according to Captain Shepard of Destiny.

"Father?" he heard her daughter when she left the shuttle. "How did it go?"

He touched her shoulder and said, "We accepted the decision of the Conclave, Selara."

She sighed with relief. "I feared you would override it."

"You think we should trust them?" he asked leading them through the corridors.

Selara shook her head. "It's not that I trust them, but we can't miss the opportunity."

"You're right, that's exactly my thought."

"I want to go on this mission, father."

Admiral froze and turned to his daughter. She was young, but already finished her Pilgrimage three years ago. He knew she was highly capable and all his protest died in his throat, because Zeem knew that they had to have young open-minded but experienced and trustworthy quarians for the mission. Selara'Xen was one of the best and to leave her out of the mission would be the worst decision.

"Why do you want to be part of that?" he asked.

"I met the human."

Admiral nodded. "Commander Mitsuharu."

"Yes. We spoke about the Empire and their homeworld. I saw recordings and it's beautiful. There are a lot of fascinating things I want to see with my own eyes. And... if they can help us, I want to be one of those who will make sure they don't stab us in the back."

"What do you think about her?"

"Mitsuharu?"

"Yes."

"I don't know. She seems to be nice and genuine, but I don't know if she is sincere. She said their children learn xenostudies from the age of six. Main goal is to teach children to respect every sentient life early. Well, aside synthetics. She was quite extremely hostile to an idea of artificial intelligence. They don't use virtual intelligence either."

Zeem took his time to think about it. Every race used virtual intelligence to control large starships, defence networks and other systems. He asked, "Do you know how they control the ship then?"

"Yes. I asked her the same question. Their crew is comparable to those of our vessels. Almost. There are more than three thousands humans on board. According to her, human cruiser-sized vessels have about three hundred crewmen. They tend to control systems manually. Surprisingly, their computers have good processing power."

"How do you know it?"

"She even gave me her handheld computer to test. Of course she blocked all the information on it. They don't have omni-tools, it was rather odd to work on it using their primitive interface. But the actual hardware is very good. They are as able to create artificial intelligence as asari or us, so it's rather a philosophical or religious problem, not a technological."

Admiral was impressed with her daughter. "Selara, I can't believe how much information you did get."

"I know, I was surprised too. She is rather open. Sure she doesn't tell many things, but if you question a quarian you won't receive an answer for every question either. I'll send you my full report today."

"I will wait for it."

"What about the mission?" she asked.

"You're assigned to the mission."

"Thank you, father," She said with a smile under her helmet.

* * *

><p>The asari Councillor was relieved. It was the time at last Vasir would be freed, so she assumed they would receive more information about still mysterious Empire and their technologies. In the last round of negotiations she and her fellow Councillors managed to reached an agreement for technological exchange. It was almost non-negotiable since the Council let the Captain have his advantages. Fortunately he understood the situation and agreed to share shielding technologies. It wasn't weaponry they hoped for, but shielding technologies were still better than they expected. Her thoughts were interrupted by entrance of turian Councillor.<p>

"I received a message from the Hierarchy concerning that electromagnetic weapon of the Empire," he said.

"What did they find out?" Councillor Dolei asked surprised that turians had news before asari and salarians.

"They found a simple but working solution. A regular technician can install the protection using omni-tools. I gave an order to do so for Citadel Fleet. Turian Hierarchy is already upgrading their vessels."

"Good," said asari. "I presume the weapon will be ineffective against our ships."

"Almost. It will still affect vessel systems causing a brief black-out of sensitive systems," he answered.

"Then we have to look for different way of protection. However, even a partial solution it better than nothing," asari said.

"Furthermore the Hierarchy already has first drafts of these ships the human called fighters. A first prototype will be ready in a few hours. If the vessel proves to be acceptable, we will be able to mass production start the production in two days."

"These are good news," asari said. "I received similar news from the Asari Republics."

"Hope the current matter goes smooth as well," the salarian added.

Tevos nodded silently and turned to a group of C-SEC officers, who were escorting the Spectre. Councillor noticed that she had no traces of injuries or violent torture. That, however, didn't reassure her, since humans could use means to torture her without leaving behind any evidences.

"You can leave us," she said to C-Sec officers. They nodded and left the room leaving councillors alone with Tela Vasir.

"Councillors," Spectre greeted. "Please forgive me my failure."

Asari Councillor shook her head and said, "Your mission was success even if only partial. We received information from your partner. We need to know how you were captured and everything what happened after that."

"Before I begin, I must ask if you know what weapon humans used to disable my ship's systems."

"Yes, it was quite simple electromagnetic pulse combined with shield disrupting radiation. An elegant weapon. We already found a solution. Now, begin your report."

"After my systems went down, I found myself trapped in my ship. I was rescued by human shuttle. They transported me to the Destiny, so I decided to use the opportunity to learn more about humans. Unfortunately they found out I was an agent of Citadel. I'm not sure how."

"It's not important right now," Berenis said.

"I didn't want to be captured, so I prepared to fight back. I was, however, stunned by simple syringe dart despite my kinetic shield was up."

"Do you know how?" turian questioned.

"I had time to think about it and came to conclusion they found out a shield frequency and used it to send the dart through the shield. I was in the shuttle long enough to be scanned," Vasid explained.

"Continue."

"Before I was knocked out I learned that their computers aren't difficult to hack with an omni-tool, but it's only speculation, since there was nothing important on the shuttle computer. It wasn't even controlled by computer; I don't know why they even bothered to install one on board. Any other system was out of my reach or shielded against hacking attempts. Furthermore they have their own biotics."

"Are they natural biotics like us?" Tevos asked.

"No. I'm not sure how strong they are. As for quantity, there were most likely two biotics in the task group of two dozen operatives, which was charged to take me down."

"That doesn't tell us much," asari Councillor said with a sigh. "What happened next?"

"When I regained my consciousness I found myself in some prison cell, which was very interesting. They managed to completely block my biotic powers."

"Not another headache!" turian exclaimed. "How did they do that?"

"I had a collar on me," she turned around and pointed at a small stab wound on the back of her neck, "Something was connected to my spine and prevented any use of biotics. The Captain called it 'neural inhibitor'."

"Interesting," salarian said thoughtfully. "We could use the technology in our own prisons."

"We can try to ask the human to share the technology," asari Councillor agreed.

"May I ask how the negotiations are going?" Spectre asked.

"Better than we expected," salarian answered. "They're much less hostile than we initially thought. Might be a misunderstanding. Please continue your report."

"There isn't much left to tell," Tela said. "The first human I saw after I regained my consciousness was the captain. He was furious. I practically could feel his anger directed at me for the loss of two crewmen in the attack."

"How did that happen?" Tevos asked surprised.

"I'm not sure," Spectre shook her head. "Probably they boarded enemy vessels and lost people in skirmishes with mercs. Anyway, I didn't show it, but I was actually scared when the human told me that the suicide device was deactivated. He promised me painful torture."

"Were you tortured?"

"Fortunately, I wasn't. I'm not sure why, maybe they haven't it in them to torture, or humans didn't want to strain relations with you; the fact is they never went further than question me. Obviously I didn't say anything, but they continued to ask questions for hours. It was a mental torture in a way," she let out a laugh. "After some time I was sedated again. I woke up on the shuttle to Citadel. Omni-tool and other devices I had on me are gone, but I assure you there wasn't any valuable information."

"Have you something else to add?" asari Councillor asked.

"No, that would be all."

"Thank you for the report. We have to punish you for organizing an attack on the human vessel, since we can't admit that we were behind the attack. We suspend you for a month. Consider it a vacation you requested before the mission."

"Thank you," Spectre said with a nod.

"Furthermore we advise you to avoid crossing the borders of the Solar Empire. Captain declared that you will be executed without a trial if you are sighted in the Empire."

"Understood."

"Good. Dismissed."

* * *

><p>Shepard was deep in his thoughts. He was concerned about the transmitter implanted into the asari. He wouldn't know if it worked or not until some agent would be in one room with her. And that wouldn't happen until the Empress ratifies a treaty. He didn't know if it was worth the information the asari shared with the Council or not. He desperately needed Mitsuharu. For first time in years he realized that she became an integral part of his life. They were practically living together for twelve years aside holiday months. He felt incomplete without her and even a bit insecure without her advice. It was disturbing, so he went to the greenhouse, the only place on the ship he felt at peace.<p>

He found the greenhouse empty, sat on the bench and closed his eyes, analyzing every decision he made in last days. He was sure there weren't any serious mistakes, but he knew he may have overlooked some minor problems. The current round of negations was about the borders. It was difficult but he knew that the Empire needed fully controlled borders. And it was relatively easy to establish, since the only way to reach the Empire was through the system currently named 'Beta'. All the others Relays leading to the Empire systems would be permanently sealed after the Destiny returns to the Empire. Of course Empire could always reactivate them, but that wouldn't happen any time soon.

He sighed recalling times at the Academy. He couldn't even hope to be part of something this big during his Academy days. When he joined it, he was a lazy boy who sought for a cushy job on some colony world. And if he would do moderately at the Academy, he would get one and then resign with approval of the Emperor. He wanted to have an easy life, to be an average, but was stuck in the end as the most important officer of the Empire.

Shizue was the reason he was here, since as soon as she entered his dormitory room and introduced as a roommate for next five years of Academy their fate was sealed. He couldn't handle her teasing, he couldn't stay average while she was provoking him, because he hated when he was laughed at, so he made sure to best her. It was however very difficult goal. She didn't receive a title of the best cadet four years in a row for nothing. He made it only in his fifth and last year: he earned one point more than her. But with his goal reached John discovered he became a different person. There was no way he could try to become average Navy officer. To be the best became his credo.

He was horrified at the thought of being without her by his side if… when they would be separated by their duty. He wondered if Shizue felt the same way about him now. He gave a laugh. Like an old married couple were they. John knew, however, that they would never be married; they were much more of siblings. Not that he believed in a fairytale of a friendship between man and woman. No, such a thing didn't exist; any friendship of that kind would eventually lead to something more. Provided the pair wasn't cowardly scared to take a first step. The fact is John and Shizue tried it for two times already and it didn't work well. Constant bickering and rows weren't something they were looking for. Besides relationships were interfering with their work and made them worse officers. Obviously they decided to stay friends and soon lost any interest in romantic relationships with each other.

Until recent Mitsuharu was the only woman in his life, if one doesn't count numerous one-night stands, but now he was somehow interested in a young but promising fighter pilot. She reminded him of himself after he met Shizue. Caitlyn was exactly as determined as he; she wasn't afraid to take a risk. The girl was intelligent, not the usual soldier. He made sure to read her file and wasn't really surprised that she had been in the top five of the Academy before she left it for a pilot career. He shook his head. Absence of Mitsuharu affected him more than he could imagine. It wasn't time to think about it. He had to read the report from the RD and chose a way to lead the next round of negotiations.

"Shepard," he heard familiar voice and opened eyes.

"Lee," John greeted and nodded. "How are things on the Klotho?"

"Perfect, like always," he answered and sat down next to Shepard.

Captain laughed. "Didn't expect any different answer from you, Malou. You seem to be more happy than usually though."

Commander grinned and said, "It's great to be in command of a ship at last. Pity I don't have much to do."

"When we return I'll speak to Admiralty. You deserve to have your own ship."

He dropped the grin and sighed. "I don't know, John." Suddenly he snorted. "What would you do without me on your team?"

Shepard smiled looking at Lee. He was four years younger than captain and was a perfect Imperial officer. Selfless, loyal, brave and one of the best tactical minds of the Empire. John knew that he would likely advance two years ago, but commander's loyalty to the captain was boundless. On the Mont Blanc he was commanding officer of the warfare division. He was a source of countless tactical ideas in war games second only to the captain and his XO. Shepard knew why Commander hesitated and sometimes felt the same. Lee was afraid that alone, without a team from Mont Blanc he would fail. The feeling John had in absence of XO reminded him of these thoughts. It was the truth: the crew is what makes a ship strong, not a captain. But Shepard knew it was only a part of the truth. It was the captain's duty to ensure the strength of the crew.

"Malou, we all would miss you, but you have to advance. You're great officer and will make the Empire proud. Coming times will be difficult and we need more people like you in command of our warships."

"Thanks, Shepard. I hope I won't make you regret your words."

"I'm sure you won't."

They sat silently for a few minutes, either was thinking about the past.

"I wonder if my sister is alright," Lee said.

"Why? Is something wrong? Last time I've seen her she was quite happy," said John.

"Aleine became a part of the expedition into the unexplored space. It's likely we won't see her for a few years." He sighed and added grimly, "If ever."

"She'll be alright, Malou. Are they setting up a new Mass Relay?"

"Yes, they're."

"There is nothing can go wrong. In a few years your sister will be hailed as a hero," John tried to cheer the friend.

"I know, but it doesn't make it easier..."

"_Captain, we need you on the bridge. We have representative of the Asari Republics on the line,_" they both heard comm. officer's voice.

"Well, it was good to talk to you," captain said and stood up. "Don't worry about Aleine, she is a bright girl and will make it through."

"See you, captain."

* * *

><p>Haresa was considered a good information broker. She wasn't fastidious and worked with almost every client. It was, however, the first time she was contacted by the collectors. She didn't even believe in their existence before. Of course she had some information on them, but it was like having an imaginary friend. No one really saw them, but everyone seemed to believe that somebody had seen the collectors. She didn't like these species. They were sickly interested in genetically unique individuals.<p>

So Haresa refused to provide them any information. Their request made her, however, curious enough to look at those new species called humans. Collectors wanted to have information on human technologies and if she was right it was almost first time the collectors showed any interest in technologies. There wasn't much knowledge on humans available, but Haresa could tell they were definitely technologically advanced. She found information about new starship shielding against a human weapon that used electromagnetic pulse to shut down everything permanently. She knew that not everyone would upgrade shielding in time and there would be casualties as soon as somebody would recreate the human weapon. She even sent a message to the Migrant Fleet in hope she would be paid for the information. Quarians, however, refused the offer, but thanked her. That's what she liked about the quarians. If it was about safety of the Flotilla, they always paid generously with either money or information. If they didn't need her services they would polite name a reason for refusal. Apparently they had already received the information from humans.

When she read that, she was shocked to the core, because the quarians were the only ones who received it from humans directly. That meant humans were allying with the quarians and that led to serious consequences. The near future was promising to be interesting.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes 2:<strong>

Sorry the chapter came a bit shorter than usual.

**I would really like to have a BETA.**

If you have other question concerning the Empire, don't hesitate to ask; I'll try to add the answer to the next portion of 'CODEX'. You would help me the great deal.

I posted a chapter of '_For the Greater Good'_. It's an **Harry Potter/Mass Effect** fic. Nothing serious though. Doubt I will continue it. Have to work on Rise of the Empire and the Will of the Force first. Besides, unlike the Rise of the Solar Empire, I have no idea what the 'For the Greater Good' will be about.


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